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THE 
NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

OUTLINES 
OF  A  COMPARATIVE  INDIVIDUALISTIC 
PSYCHOLOGY  AND  PSYCHOTHERAPY 

BY 

Dr.  ALFRED  ADLER 

Vienna 

Authorized  English  TransIatioD  by 
BERNARD  GLUECK,  M.D. 

Director,  Psychiatric  Clinic,  Sing  Sing  Priion 
and 

JOHN  E.  LIND,  M.D. 

Senior  Assistant  Physician,  Saint  Elizabeth's  Hospital; 

Associate  Psychiatrist,  Washington  Asylum 

Hospital,  and  Instructor  in  Psychiatry, 

Georgetown  Medical  College 


NEW  YORK 
MOFFAT,  YARD  AND  COMPANY 

1917 


COPTEIGHT,    1917,    BY 

MOFFAT,   YARD   &  COMPANY 


PREFACE 

After  I  had  made  the  attempt  to  investigate  in 
the  "Studie  iiber  Minderwertigkeit  von  Or- 
ganen,"  the  structure  and  tectonic  of  organs  in 
association  with  their  genetic  basis,  their  func- 
tional capabiHty  and  destiny,  I  proceeded,  sup- 
porting myself  upon  already  available  data  as 
well  as  upon  my  own  experience,  to  apply  the 
same  method  in  the  study  of  psychopathology. 
In  the  book  before  us  are  embraced  the  most 
important  results  of  my  comparative,  individual- 
psj^chologic  studies  of  the  neuroses. 

As  was  the  case  in  the  theory  of  somatic  in- 
feriority, an  empiric  basis  is  made  use  of  in  com- 
parative individual-psychology  for  the  purpose 
of  establishing  a  Active  standard  of  normality  in 
order  to  enable  one  to  measure  and  compare  with 
it  grades  of  deviation  from  it.  In  both  of  these 
scientific  endeavors,  the  comparative  method  of 
study  reckons  with  the  origin  of  phenomena,  dis- 
misses from  consideration  the  present  and  seeks 
to  outline  from  them  the  future.  This  method 
of  approach  leads  us  to  view  the  compulsion  of 
evolution  and  the  pathological  elaboration  as  the 
result  of  a  conflict  which  breaks  forth  in  the 


PREFACE 

organic  sphere  for  the  purpose  of  attaining  equi- 
poise, functional  capabihty  and  adaptation;  the 
same  struggle  in  the  psychic  sphere  is  under  the 
command  of  a  fictitious  idea  of  personality  whose 
influence  dominates  the  development  of  the 
neurotic  character  and  symptoms.  If  in  the 
organic  sphere,  "the  individual  develops  into  a 
unit  mass  in  which  all  of  the  individual  parts  co- 
operate toward  a  common  goal"  (Virchow),  if 
the  various  abilities  and  tendencies  of  the  indi- 
vidual tend  toward  a  purposefully  directed,  unit- 
personality,  then  we  may  look  upon  every  single 
manifestation  of  hfe  as  if  in  its  past,  present  and 
future  there  are  contained  traces  of  a  dominating, 
guiding  idea. 

In  this  way  it  has  appeared  to  the  author  of  this 
book,  that  the  most  minute  trait  of  psychic  life 
is  permeated  by  a  purpose-force.  Comparative, 
individualistic  psychology  sees  in  every  psychic 
event  the  impress,  so  to  speak,  or  symbol  of  a 
uniformly  directed  plan  of  life  which  only  comes 
more  clearly  to  light  in  the  neuroses  and 
psychoses. 

The  result  of  such  an  investigation  of  the 
neurotic  character  should  furnish  proof  of  the 
value  and  utility  of  our  method  of  comparative, 
individualistic  psychology  in  the  problems  of 
mental  hfe.  THE  AUTHOR. 

Vienna,  February,  1912. 


INTRODUCTION 

"Omnia  ex  opinione  suspensa  sunt:  non  ambitio 
tantum  ad  illam  respicit  et  luxuria  et  avaricia.  Ad 
opinionem  dolemus.  Tarn  miser  est  quisque,  quam 
credidit." 

Seneca,  Epist.  78,  13. 

The  study  of  the  neurotic  character  is  an  essen- 
tial part  of  neuro-psychology.  Like  all  other 
psychic  phenomena  it  can  only  be  understood 
when  taken  in  connection  with  the  entire  psychic 
life.  A  cursory  knowledge  of  the  neuroses  suf- 
fices to  enable  one  to  discover  that  which  is  pe- 
culiarly characteristic  in  them  and  all  writers 
who  have  studied  the  problem  of  nervousness 
have  laid  particular  stress  upon  certain  peculiar 
traits  of  character.  The  opinion  was  a  general 
one  that  the  neurotic  shows  a  series  of  sharply 
emphasized  traits  of  character  which  exceed  the 
normal  standard.  The  marked  sensitiveness, 
the  irritable  debility,  the  suggestibility,  the  ego- 
tism, the  penchant  for  the  fantastic,  the  estrange- 
ment from  reality,  but  also  more  special  traits 
such  as  tyranny,  malevolence,  a  self-sacrificing 
virtue,  coquetry,  anxiety  and  absent-mindedness 


Ti  INTRODUCTION 

are  met  with  in  the  majority  of  case  histories  and 
it  would  be  necessary  to  detail  all  writers  who 
have  thoroughly  studied  the  subject  in  order  to 
endorse  their  contributions.  Of  the  more  recent 
ones,  Janet,  who  has  carried  on  the  traditions  of 
the  famous  French  school  and  who  has  brought 
to  light  some  very  important  and  ingenious 
analyses,  must  be  especially  mentioned.  His 
emphasis  of  the  neurotic's  "sentiment  d'incomple- 
tude"  particularly,  is  so  wholly  in  harmonj'^  with 
the  results  offered  by  me  that  I  am  justified  in 
seeing  in  my  work  an  extension  of  this  most  im- 
portant fundamental  fact  of  the  mental  life  of  the 
neurotic. 

No  matter  where  one  begins  with  the  analysis 
of  psychogenic  disorders,  one  and  the  same  phe- 
nomenon forces  itself  upon  one's  attention  after 
the  briefest  observation,  namely,  that  the  entire 
picture  of  the  neurosis  as  well  as  all  its  symptoms 
are  influenced  by,  nay,  even  wholly  provoked  by 
an  imaginary  fictitious  goal.  This  final  purpose 
has  a  creative,  directive  and  adjustive  power. 
The  potency  of  this  "goal  idea"  is  revealed  to  us 
by  the  trend  and  evaluation  of  the  pathological 
phenomena  and  should  one  attempt  to  dispense 
with  this  assumption  there  remains  nothing  but  a 
confusing  mass  of  impulses,  trends,  components, 
debilities  and  anomalies  which  has  made  the  ob- 
scurity of  the  neurosis  impenetrable  to  some,  while 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

others  have  undertaken  bold  exploratory  jour- 
neys into  this  field. 

Pierre  Janet  has  certainly  recognized  this  rela- 
tionship as  is  shown  in  his  classical  descriptions  of 
the  "Hysterical  Psyche,"  1894,^  but  he  avoided  a 
detailed  descrii^tion.  He  expressly  maintains, 
"I  have  until  now  only  described  general  and  sim- 
ple traits  of  character  which  by  means  of  their  as- 
sociation and  under  the  influence  of  definite  ex- 
traneous circumstances  may  produce  all  kinds  of 
curious  behavior  and  conduct."  It  is  entirely  out 
of  place  here  to  enter  into  a  detailed  discussion  of 
Janet's  description  for  this  treatise  would  then 
resemble  more  a  moral  romance  than  a  clinical 
study.  Having  adhered  to  this  attitude  even  up 
to  his  latest  contributions  on  the  subject,  Janet, 
notwithstanding  his  keen  insight  into  the  rela- 
tionship between  the  psychology  of  the  neuroses 
and  moral  philosophy,  never  entered  the  road  to 
synthesis. 

It  remained  for  Joseph  Breuer,  a  man  well 
versed  in  current  German  philosophy,  to  discover 
the  gem  which  lay  in  his  path.  He  directed  his 
attention  to  the  meaning  of  the  symptoms  and 
undertook  to  ascertain  the  source  and  purpose  of 
the  same  from  the  onty  one  who  could  give  them 
— from  the  patient.  In  so  doing  the  author 
founded  a  method  which  seeks  to  explain  indi- 

1  Translated    by    Dr.    Max    Kahane. 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

vidual  psychological  phenomena  historically  and 
genetically  with  the  assistance  of  a  preliminary 
hypothesis,  i.e.,  that  of  the  determinism  of  psychic 
phenomena.  The  manner  in  which  this  method 
has  been  extended  and  improved  upon  by  Sig- 
mund  Freud  with  the  host  of  problems  and  at- 
tempted solutions  therewith  connected  belongs  to 
contemporaneous  history  and  has  met  with  both 
recognition  and  contradiction.  Less  for  the  pur- 
pose of  following  a  critical  bent  than  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  clear  my  own  position  I  beg  leave 
to  separate  from  the  fruitful  and  valuable  contri- 
butions of  Freud  three  of  his  fundamental  views 
as  erroneous  inasmuch  as  they  threaten  to  impede 
progress  in  the  understanding  of  the  neuroses. 
The  first  objection  is  directed  against  the  view 
that  the  libido  is  the  motive  force  behind  the  phe- 
nomena of  the  neurosis.  On  the  contrary  it  is 
the  neurosis  which  shows  more  clearly  than  does 
normal  psychic  conduct  how  by  means  of  this 
neurotic  positing  of  a  "final  purpose,"  the  apper- 
ception of  pleasure,  its  selection  and  power  are 
all  driven  in  the  direction  of  this  final  purpose  so 
that  the  neurotic  can  really  only  follow  the  allure- 
ment of  the  acquisition  of  pleasure  with  his 
healthy  psychic  force,  so  to  speak,  while  for  the 
neurotic  portion  only  "higher"  goals  are  of  value. 
The  neurotic  goal  (Zwecksetzung)  has  re- 
vealed itself  to  us  in  the  heightened  ego-conscious- 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

ness  (Personlichkeitsgefiihl)  whose  simplest  for- 
mula is  to  be  recognized  in  an  exaggerated  "mas- 
culine protest"  (Mannlichen  Protest).  This 
formula:  "I  wish  to  be  a  complete  man"  is  the 
guiding  fiction  in  every  neurosis,  claiming  higher 
reality  values  than  even  the  normal  psyche.  The 
libido,  the  sex-impulses  and  the  tendencies  to  sex- 
ual perversions  arrange  themselves  in  accord- 
ance with  this  guiding  principle,  no  matter 
whence  they  originate.  Nietzsche's  "Will  to 
power"  and  "Will  to  seem"  embrace  many  of  our 
views,  which  again  resemble  in  some  respects  the 
views  of  Fere  and  the  older  writers,  according  to 
whom  the  sensation  of  pleasure  originates  in  a 
feeling  of  power,  that  of  pain  in  a  feeling  of  fee- 
bleness (Ohnmacht). 

A  second  objection  is  directed  against  Freud's 
fundamental  view  of  the  sexual  etiology  of  the 
neuroses,  a  view  which  Pierre  Janet  approached 
very  closely  when  he  asked,  "Is  sexual  feeling 
then  the  center  around  which  all  other  psycholog- 
ical syntheses  are  built  up?"  The  applicability 
of  the  sexual  picture  deceives  the  normal  person 
and  especially  the  neurotic.  But  it  must  not  de- 
ceive the  psychologist.  The  sexual  content  in  the 
neurotic  phenomenon  originates  primarily  in  the 
imaginary  antithesis:  "Masculine-feminine"  and 
is  evolved  through  a  change  of  form  of  the  "mas- 
culine protest."     The  sexual  trend  in  the  fantasy 


X  INTRODUCTION 

and  life  of  the  neurotic  follows  the  direction  of 
the  "masculine  goal,"  and  is  really  not  a  trend, 
but  a  compulsion.  The  whole  picture  of  the 
sexual  neurosis  is  nothing  more  than  a  portrait 
depicting  the  distance  which  the  patient  is  re- 
moved from  the  imaginary  masculine  goal  and  the 
manner  in  which  he  seeks  to  bridge  it.  It  is 
strange  that  Freud,  a  skillful  connoisseur  of  the 
symbolic  in  life,  was  not  able  to  discover  the  sym- 
bolic in  "sexual  apperception,"  to  recognize  the 
sexual  as  a  jargon,  a  modus  dicendi.  But  we  can 
understand  this  when  we  take  into  consideration 
the  more  extensive  basic  error,  i.e.,  the  assumption 
that  the  neurotic  is  under  the  influence  of  infan- 
tile wishes,  which  come  to  life  nightly  (Dream 
theory)  as  well  as  in  connection  with  certain  oc- 
casions in  life.  In  reality  these  infantile  wishes 
already  stand  under  the  compulsion  of  the  imag- 
inary goal  and  themselves  usually  bear  the  char- 
acter of  a  guiding  thought  suitably  arrayed,  and 
adapt  themselves  to  symbolic  expression  purely 
for  reasons  of  thought  economy.  A  sickly  girl 
who  during  her  entire  childhood  in  her  conscious- 
ness of  an  unusual  insecurity  leans  upon  her 
father  and  in  so  doing  strives  to  become  superior 
to  her  mother,  may  comprehend  this  psychic  con- 
stellation in  the  form  of  an  incest,  as  if  she  wished 
to  be  the  wife  of  her  father.  Thereby  the  goal 
is  both  attained  and  effective;  her  insecurity  is 


INTRODUCTION  ad 

only  abolished  when  she  is  with  her  father.  Her 
developed  psycho-motor  intelligence,  her  uncon- 
sciously active  memory  combats  all  feelings  of 
uncertainty  with  the  same  aggression,  with  the 
adequate  expedient,  to  take  refuge  in  the  father 
as  if  she  were  his  wife.  There  she  finds  that 
heightened  ego-consciousness  which  she  has  set 
for  her  goal,  which  she  has  borrowed  from  the 
masculine  ideal  of  childliood,  from  the  over-com- 
pensation of  her  feeling  of  inferiority.  If  she 
recoils  from  a  proffer  of  love  or  marriage,  threat- 
ening her  as  they  do  with  a  fresh  lowering  of  her 
ego-consciousness,  she  acts  symbolically,  and  all 
her  defensive  resources  and  her  predispositions 
become  arrayed  against  a  female  destiny  and 
make  her  seek  security  where  she  has  always 
found  it,  with  her  father.  She  utilizes  an  expe- 
dient, behaves  in  accordance  with  a  senseless  fic- 
tion, but  is  nevertheless  certain  of  attaining  her 
goal.  The  greater  her  feeling  of  uncertainty,  the 
more  firmly  this  girl  clings  to  her  fiction,  en- 
deavors to  take  it  quite  hterally  and  since  himian 
thinking  favors  symbolic  abstraction  the  patient 
with  a  little  effort  (and  also  the  analyst)  is  suc- 
cessful in  the  longing  of  neurotics,  namely,  to  find 
security,  to  gain  a  foothold  in  the  symbolic  pic- 
ture of  incestuous  emotion. 

Freud  was  obliged  to  see  in  this  purposeful 
manifestation  a  reanimation  of  infantile  wishes 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

because  according  to  him  the  latter  are  to  be 
looked  upon  as  motive  forces.  We  recognize  in 
this  infantile  mode  of  procedure,  in  the  extensive 
use  of  safety-devices  (Hilfsconstructionen),  in 
which  light  the  neurotic  fiction  is  to  be  regarded, 
in  the  many-sided  motor  preparedness  which 
reaches  into  the  remote  past,  in  the  strong  tend- 
ency to  abstraction  and  symbolization,  the  most 
useful  expedient  of  the  neurotic,  who  strives  to- 
ward security,  toward  a  maximation  of  his  ego, 
toward  the  masculine  protest. 

If  we  attach  to  these  critical  remarks  the  ques- 
tion of  how  the  neurotic  phenomena  come  into 
being,  why  the  patient  wills  to  be  a  man  and  con- 
stantly seeks  to  adduce  proof  thereof,  whence  he 
has  the  stronger  necessity  for  ego-consciousness, 
why  he  makes  such  strong  endeavors  to  gain  se- 
curity, in  short,  if  we  inquire  into  the  final  reasons 
for  these  devices  of  the  neurotic  psyche,  we  may 
conjecture  that  which  is  revealed  by  every  analy- 
sis, namely,  that  at  the  onset  of  the  development 
of  a  neurosis  there  stands  threateningly  the  feel- 
ing of  imcertainty  and  inferiority  and  demands 
insistently  a  guiding,  assuring  and  tranquihzing 
positing  of  a  goal  in  order  to  render  life  bearable. 
Among  these  are  especially  prominent  safety 
devices^  and  fictions  in  thought,  action  and  voli- 
tion. 

It  is  clear  that  this  sort  of  psyche,  directed  as  it 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

is  with  especial  force  toward  a  heightening  of  the 
ego,  will,  aside  from  specific  neurotic  symptoms, 
make  itself  conspicuous  in  society  because  of  its 
evident  inability  to  adapt  itself.  The  conscious- 
ness of  the  weak  point  dominates  the  neurotic  to 
such  a  degree  that  often  without  knowing  it  he 
begins  to  construct  with  all  his  might  the  protect- 
ing superstructure.  Along  with  this  his  sensi- 
tiveness becomes  more  acute,  he  learns  to  pay  at- 
tention to  relationships  which  still  escape  others, 
he  exaggerates  his  cautiousness,  begins  to  antici- 
pate all  sorts  of  disagi-eeable  consequences  in 
starting  out  to  do  something  or  in  experiencing 
an  injury,  he  endeavors  to  hear  further  and  to  see 
further,  belittles  himself,  becomes  insatiable,  eco- 
nomical, constantly  strives  to  extend  the  bounda- 
ries of  his  influence  and  power  over  space  and  time 
and  at  the  same  time  loses  that  peace  of  mind  and 
freedom  from  prejudice  which  above  all  guaran- 
tee mental  health.  His  mistrust  of  himself  and 
others,  his  envy  and  maliciousness,  become  grad- 
ually more  pronounced,  aggressive  and  cruel 
tendencies  which  are  to  secure  for  him  supremacy 
over  his  environment,  gain  the  upper  hand,  or  he 
endeavors  to  captivate  and  conquer  others  by 
means  of  greater  obedience,  submission  and  hu- 
mility which  not  infrequently  degenerate  into 
masochistic  traits;  thus  both  heightened  activity 
as  well  as   increased  passivity  are  expedients 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

ushered  in  by  the  fictitious  goal  of  an  increased 
power,  of  a  desire  to  be  above,  of  the  mascuhne 
protest. 

Thus  we  have  arrived  at  those  psychic  phenom- 
ena, at  the  neurotic  character,  the  discussion  of 
which  forms  the  content  of  this  book.  None  of 
the  neurotic's  traits  of  character  are  essentially 
new.  He  shows  no  single  trait  which  cannot  like- 
wise be  demonstrated  in  the  healthy  individual, 
although  at  times  it  becomes  understandable  for 
the  physician  as  well  as  the  patient  only  through 
analysis.  It  is  uninterruptedly  "sensitized," 
thrust  forward  like  an  outpost,  and  represents  the 
sounding  of  the  environment  and  the  future. 
The  knowledge  of  these  psychic  dexterities,  which 
protrude  far  and  wide,  like  sensitive  antennse, 
first  makes  possible  the  understanding  of  the 
neurotic's  struggle  with  his  fate,  of  his  stimulated 
aggressive  tendency,  his  unrest  and  impatience. 
For  these  antennae  test  all  the  phenomena  of  the 
environment  and  examine  them  constantly  for 
their  advantages  and  disadvantages  with  regard 
to  the  assumed  goal.  They  create  the  keen  sense 
for  estimate  and  comparison,  awaken,  by  means 
of  the  attention  active  in  them,  fear,  hope,  doubt, 
expectations  of  all  sorts  and  seek  to  ensure  the 
psyche  against  surprise  and  against  a  lowering 
of  the  ego-consciousness.  They  put  forth  the 
most  accessible  motor  dexterities,  ever  mobile. 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

ever  ready  to  prevent  a  degradation  of  the  per- 
son. The  forces  of  internal  and  external  expe- 
rience are  active  in  them,  they  are  filled  with 
memory-rests  of  fear — inspiring  as  well  as  con- 
soling experiences,  the  reminiscences  of  which 
they  have  changed  into  dexterities.  Categorical 
imperatives  of  the  second  rank,  they  do  not  serve 
to  bring  about  their  own  existence,  but  in  the  last 
analysis  cause  an  elevation  of  the  ego-conscious- 
ness and  they  attempt  this  by  making  possible  the 
discovery  in  the  unrest  and  uncertainty  of  life,  of 
guiding  principles,  by  facilitating  the  differentia- 
tion between  right  and  wrong,  up  and  down,  right 
and  left.  The  accentuated  traits  of  character  are 
to  be  found  already  in  the  neurotic  disposition 
where  they  give  rise  to  peculiarities  and  perver- 
sions of  conduct.  These  become  still  more  pro- 
noimced  when  after  a  more  severe  attack  or  after 
the  emergence  of  a  contradiction  in  the  mascuhne 
protest,  the  craving  for  security  ( Sicherungsten- 
denz)  asserts  itself  and  simultaneously  calls  forth 
symptoms  as  new,  effective  expedients.  They 
are  largely  constructed  after  models  and  patterns 
and  have  for  their  object  the  initiation  in  every 
new  situation  of  the  struggle  for  the  preservation 
of  the  ego  and  victory  for  it.  In  their  influence 
lies  the  reason  for  the  exaggerated  aff ectivity  and 
lowered  threshold  of  stimulation  in  contrast  with 
normal  individuals.     It  goes  without  saying  that 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

the  neurotic  character,  too,  develops  out  of  ma- 
terial already  at  hand,  out  of  psychic  impulses 
and  metamorphosing  experiences  of  the  somatic 
functions. 

All  these  psychic  dexterities,  standing  as  they 
do  in  close  contact  with  the  outside  world,  become 
neurotic  only  when  an  inner  want  accentuates  the 
craving  for  security  which  in  turn  more  effec- 
tively constructs  and  mobilizes  the  traits  of  char- 
acter only  when  the  fictitious  object  of  life  oper- 
ates more  dogmatically  and  strengthens  those 
secondary  guiding  principles  which  are  in  accord 
with  the  traits  of  character.  It  is  then  that  the 
hypostatization  of  the  character  sets  in,  its  trans- 
formation from  a  means  to  a  goal  leads  to  an  in- 
dependence of  existence  and  a  sort  of  deification 
lends  to  it  unchangeability  and  eternal  worth. 
The  neurotic  character  is  thus  incapable  of  ad- 
justing itself  to  reality  because  it  is  always  striv- 
ing toward  an  impossible  ideal.  It  is  a  product 
and  instrument  of  a  cautious  psyche  which 
strengthens  its  guiding  principle  for  the  purpose 
of  ridding  itself  of  a  feeling  of  inferiority,  an  at- 
tempt which  is  destined  to  be  wrecked  as  a  con- 
sequence of  inner  contradiction,  on  the  barriers 
of  civilization  or  on  the  rights  of  others.  Analo- 
gous to  the  groping  gestures,  pose  in  facing  the 
rear,  to  the  bodily  attitude  in  the  act  of  aggres- 
sion, like  mimicry  as  a  form  of  expression  and  in- 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

strument  of  motility,  so  the  traits  of  character, 
especially  the  neurotic  ones,  serve  as  a  psychic 
means  and  form  of  expression  for  the  purpose  of 
entering  into  an  account  with  life,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  assuming  an  attitude,  of  gaining  a  fixed 
point  in  the  vicissitudes  of  life,  for  the  purpose 
of  reaching  that  security-giving  goal,  the  feeling 
of  superiority. 

Thus  we  have  unmasked  the  neurotic  character 
as  the  servant  of  an  imaginary  goal  and  have 
estabhshed  its  dependence  upon  a  final  purpose. 
It  has  not  sprung  up  independently  out  of  any 
sort  of  biological  or  constitutional  primitive  force, 
but  has  received  direction  and  motivation  from 
the  compensatory  superstructure  and  the  sche- 
matic guiding  principle.  Its  emergence  took 
place  under  the  pressure  of  uncertainty,  its  tend- 
ency to  personify  itself  is  the  doubtful  success 
of  the  craving  for  security.  This  course  of  the 
neurotic  character  has  received  through  the  posit- 
ing of  a  final  purpose  its  destination  which  is  the 
masculine  main  principle  and  thus  every  neurotic 
tendency  betrays  to  us  by  its  direction  that  it  is 
impregnated  with  the  masculine  protest  which 
seeks  to  make  of  it  an  unfailing  instrument  for 
the  purpose  of  excluding  from  experience  every 
permanent  degradation. 

In  the  practical  part  of  this  book  will  be  shown 
by  means  of  a  series  of  cases  how  the  "neurotic 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

scheme"  calls  forth  special  psycho-pathological 
constellations,  namely,  through  the  apperception 
of  experiences  by  means  of  the  neurotic  char- 
acter. 


INTRODUCTION 

Since  the  inception  of  the  psychoanalytic 
movement  its  students  have  shown  a  remark- 
able activity  in  applying  the  principles  of  inter- 
pretation originally  enunciated  by  Freud  over 
a  wide  field  of  human  endeavor,  and  thus  not 
only  have  the  neurotic  and  the  psychotic  come 
under  the  critical  survey  of  the  analyst,  but  the 
whole  course  of  cultural  development  has  been 
subjected  to  inquiry  along  these  lines.  In  addi- 
tion to  this  growth  in  the  extent  of  the  movement 
it  has  manifested  what  seems  to  me  to  be  a  very 
healthy  tendency,  namely,  it  has  shown  an  in- 
clination to  put  forth  suggestions  as  to  new  meth- 
ods of  approach  to  the  problems,  represented 
here  and  there  by  groups  of  workers  who  have 
tended  to  depart  more  or  less  from  the  original 
formulations  as  laid  down  by  Freud.  One  of 
the  most  stimulating  and  valuable  points  of  view 
which  have  been  developed  in  this  way  is  that 
of  Alfred  Adler,  of  Vienna,  a  translation  of 
whose  work  on  the  characteristics  of  the  neurotic 
character  is  offered  in  the  following  pages. 

The  distinctive  feature  of  Adler's  approach  to 
the  problem  of  the  neurotic  character  traits  is 
that  it  approaches  from  the  organic  rather  than 
from  the  functional  side  and  in  this  way,  I  think, 
affords  a  very  valuable  viewpoint  because  it 
tends  to  bring  together  the  organicist  and  the 

xix 


XX 


INTRODUCTION 


functionalist,  who  have  been  too  long  separated 
by  the  misconception  of  irreconcilable  differ- 
ences between  mind  and  body.  No  small  part  of 
the  opposition  to  the  whole  psychological  move- 
ment, as  represented  in  psychoanalysis,  has  come 
from  the  inability  of  the  man  who  has  been 
brought  up  to  look  at  things  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  internist  to  be  able  to  accept  many 
of  the  clinical  observations  which  were  offered 
and  which  tended  to  show  the  development  of 
clearly  organic  disorders  as  a  result  of  a  dis- 
turbance in  the  psyche.  Adler's  approach  to  the 
psychoanalytic  problems  is  admirably  calculated 
to  break  down  such  prejudices. 

In  this  book,  however,  the  working  out  of  the 
significance  of  the  various  neurotic  character 
traits  has  been  by  ringing  the  changes  on  the 
basic  formulation  of  what  Adler  calls  the  mascu- 
line protest.  It  is  as  if  the  neurotic  said  to 
himself,  "  I  wish  to  be  a  complete  man."  This 
protest  arises  on  the  basis  of  a  feeling  of  in- 
feriority and  an  effort  upon  the  part  of  the 
neurotic  to  correct  this  feeling,  which  he  does 
by  so  ordering  his  life,  so  regulating  his  every 
act  that  he  may  find  that  security  of  which  the 
feeling  of  inferiority  has  robbed  him.  This  is  the 
fictitious  goal  of  the  neurotic  and  the  funda- 
mental and  ultimate  cause  of  his  symptoms  when 
he  is  no  longer  able  to  succeed,  when  failure 
threatens  in  his  efforts  to  deal  with  reality. 

For  Adler  the  neurosis  or  the  psychosis  is 
comparable  to  the  work  of  art,  but  has  been 
built  up  in  response  to  a  fictitious  goal  which 


INTRODUCTION  xxi 

collects  and  unites  into  a  group  those  psychic 
elements  of  which  it  can  make  use,  collecting 
only  those  which  promise  results  in  the  effort 
at  the  attainment  of  security.  The  attempt  to 
attain  to  the  maximation  of  his  ego  fails  because 
directed  along  a  false  path.  The  neurosis  or 
psychosis  is  therefore  a  constructive  creation,  a 
compensation  product,  which,  however,  fails  be- 
cause of  its  false  direction. 

All  this  is  very  psychological  and  does  not 
bear  out  what  I  have  said  about  it  to  the  effect 
that  Adler's  approach  is  from  the  organic  side. 
This  particular  book,  however,  stresses  the  psy- 
chological formula.  In  his  earlier  work  on  organ 
inferiority  ^  the  organic  basis  of  this  psycho- 
logical formulation  is  founded.  The  feeling  of 
inferiority,  which  underlies  the  masculine  pro- 
test, has  its  raison  d'etre  in  an  inferior  organ. 

In  this  work  he  has  gone  to  considerable  ex- 
tent in  working  over  the  psychological  charac- 
teristics of  persons  who  have  had  demonstrably 
inferior  organs,  either  clinically  evident  or  show- 
ing up  at  autopsy.  From  this  work  he  believes 
he  has  been  able  to  show  that  the  predominant 
traits  of  character  are  the  result  of  an  effort  on 
the  part  of  the  individual  to  overcome  a  feeling 
of  inferiority  resulting  from  an  inferior  organ. 
Many  examples  might  be  given,  and  in  fact  they 
come  within  the  ken  of  every  one,  which  demon- 
strate the  validity  of  this  point  of  view.  A 
classical  example  is  that  of  Demosthenes,  a  stam- 

^  Translation  in  preparation,   as  Number  24  of  the  Nervous  and 
Mental  Disease  Monograph  Series. 


xxii  INTRODUCTION 

merer,  who  became  the  greatest  orator  of  Greece. 
Adler  beheves  that  defects  of  this  sort  nucleate, 
so  to  say,  the  feeling  of  inferiority  and  force 
the  individual  to  make  supreme  efforts  to  over- 
come his  particular  defect  and  in  this  way,  as 
a  result  of  these  efforts,  the  inferior  organ,  by 
the  development  of  a  highly  differentiated  nerv- 
ous superstructure,  may  actually  become  super- 
normal, a  result  which  we  are  familiar  with,  for 
example,  in  the  remarkable  facility  with  which 
blind  people  gain  information  through  their 
supersensitized  touch  organs.  In  other  words,  to 
use  the  language  of  current  psychoanalysis,  the 
organ  inferiority  is  the  basic  factor  of  what  the 
Freudians  refer  to  as  the  conflict. 

These  two  works  of  Adler's,  therefore,  give 
the  organic  basis  and  the  psychological  elabora- 
tion of  his  opinions.  The  neurotic  constitution 
founds  in  an  inferior  organ,  the  inferior  organ 
produces  a  feeling  of  inferiority,  the  feeling 
of  inferiority — the  masculine  protest — becomes 
the  fictitious  goal  of  the  neurotic,  whose  symp- 
toms result  from  an  effort  to  mould  reality  along 
this  false  pathway. 

To  those  who  follow  Adler  through  the  vari- 
ous ramifications  of  his  hypothesis,  who  read 
sympathetically  his  numerous  case  reports  which 
he  offers  to  substantiate  his  views,  there  can  be 
no  doubt  but  that  the  angle  from  which  he  looks 
at  the  problem  of  the  neuroses  and  the  psychoses 
lets  us  see  new  aspects  of  these  phenomena  which 
are  exceedingly  helpful  to  us  in  our  effort  to 
grasp  their  meanings.    It  will  also  be  perfectly 


INTRODUCTION  xxiii 

evident  that  the  helpfulness  of  the  Adler  theories 
is  in  the  orientation  which  the  physician  gets 
towards  the  problem  presented  by  the  patient, 
whether  he  approach  it  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  internist  or  of  the  psychologist.  Adler's 
theories  are  admirably  calculated  to  help  the 
internist  to  grasp  the  possibilities  of  organ  in- 
feriority as  t^  ey  may  affect  the  psyche  and  to 
help  the  psychoanalyst  to  grasp  the  origin  and 
meanings  of  the  neurosis  as  he  sees  it  at  the 
psychological  level  and  perhaps  to  see  more 
clearly  upon  what  his  limitations  are  based.  In 
any  event  the  two  groups  of  physicians,  hereto- 
fore separated  all  too  fpr,  both  in  theory  and 
practice,  may  find  in  Adler's  views  a  common 
ground  upon  which  to  meet. 

William  A.  White. 

Saint  Elizabeth's  Hospital, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

October  23,  1916. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

Preface 

PAGE 

iii 

THEORETICAL  PART 

Introduction 

V 

I 

The  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Feeling  of 
Inferiority  and  the  Consequences  Thereof     . 

1 

II 

Psychic  Compensation  and  its  Synthesis 

35 

III 

The  Accentuated  Fiction  as  the  Guiding  Idea 
in  the  Neurosis 

51 

PRACTICAL  PART 

I  Avarice,  Suspiciousness,  Envy,  Cruelty,  The 
derogatory  critique  of  the  neurotic,  neurotic 
apperception,  senile  neuroses,  changes  in  the 
form  and  intensity  of  the  fiction.  Somatic 
jargon    (organ-jargon) 127 

II  The  neurotic  extension  of  limits  through  asceti- 
cism, love,  desire  to  travel,  crime.  Simula- 
tion and  neurosis.  Feeling  of  inferiority  of 
the  female  sex.  Purpose  of  an  ideal.  Doubt 
as  an  expression  of  psychic  hermaphroditism. 
Masturbation  and  neurosis.  The  incest-com- 
plex as  a  symbol  of  craving  for  dominancy. 
The  nature  of  the  delirium.  (Delirium  used 
in  the  sense  of  the  French  une  Delire)   .      .   208 

III  Neurotic  principles:  sympathy,  coquetry,  nar- 
cissism, Psychic  hermaphroditism.  Halluci- 
natory security,  Virtue,  conscience,  pedantry, 
fanatic  attachment  to  truth 246 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IV  The  derogatory  tendency  to  disparage  others; 
Obstinacy  and  wildness;  The  sexual  rela- 
tions of  neurotics  as  a  means  of  comparison; 
Symbolic  emasculation;  Feeling  of  being  be- 
littled; Equality  to  man  as  a  life-plan;  Simu- 
lation and  neurosis;  Substitute  for  masculin- 
ity;  Impatience;   Discontent;   Inaccessibility  281 

V     Cruelty.     Conscience.     Perversion  and  neurosis  324 

VI  The  antithesis  above-beneath,  Choice  of  a 
profession,  Somnambulism,  Antithesis  in 
thought,  Elevation  of  the  personality  through 
the  disparagement  of  others,  Jealousy,  Neu- 
rotic auxiliaries,  Authoritativeness,  Thinking 
in  antithesis  and  the  masculine  protest.  Dila- 
tory attitude  and  marriage.  The  tendency  up- 
ward as  a  symbol  of  life.  Compulsion  to 
masturbation.  The  neurotic  striving  for 
knowledge 334 

VII  Punctuality,  The  will  to  be  first.  Homosexual- 
ity and  perversion  as  a  symbol.  Modesty  and 
exhibitionism.  Constancy  and  inconstancy. 
Jealousy 361 

VIII  Fear  of  the  partner ;  The  ideal  in  the  neurosis ; 
Insomnia  and  compulsion  to  sleep ;  Neurotic 
comparison  of  man  and  woman;  Forms  of  the 
fear  of  the  wife 383 

IX  Self-reproaches,  self-torture.  Contrition  and 
asceticism,  Flagellation,  Neuroses  in  chil- 
dren; Suicide  and  suicidal  ideas  .      .      .      .412 

X  The  neurotic's  esprit  de  famille.  Refractoriness 
and  obedience,  Silence  and  loquaciousness. 
The  tendency  to  contrariness       ....   436 

Conclusion 443 

Authors'  Contributions  referred  to  in  this  book  447 


THE 
NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

CHAPTER  I 

THE  ORIGIN  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  FEELING  OF 
INFERIORITY  AND  THE  CONSEQUENCES  THEREOF 

The  facts  established  through  my  study  of 
somatic  inferiority  (vide  Studie,  I.e.)  concerned 
themselves  with  the  causes,  the  behavior,  the  man- 
ifestations and  altered  mode  of  activity  of  in- 
feriorily  developed  organs  and  has  led  me  to  as- 
sume the  idea  of  "compensation  through  the 
central  nervous  system"  with  which  were  linked 
certain  discussions  of  the  subject  of  psychogene- 
sis. 

There  came  to  light  a  remarkable  relationship 
between  somatic  inferiority  and  psychic  overcom- 
pensation, so  that  I  gained  a  fundamental  view- 
point, namely,  that  the  realization  of  somatic  in- 
feriority by  the  individual  becomes  for  him  a 
permanent  impelling  force  for  the  development 
of  his  psj^che. 

Physiologically  there  results  from  this  a  reen- 


3  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

forcement  of  the  nerve  tracts,  both  quantitatively 
and  quahtatively,  whereby  a  concomitant  original 
inferiority  of  these  tracts  is  enabled  to  reveal  in 
a  composite  picture  its  tectonic  and  functional 
peculiarities. 

The  psychic  phase  of  this  compensation  and 
overcompensation  can  only  be  disclosed  by  means 
of  psychologic  investigation  and  analysis. 

As  I  have  given  a  detailed  description  of  organ- 
inferiority  as  the  etiology  of  the  neuroses  in  my 
former  contributions,  especially  in  the  "Studie," 
in  the  "Aggressionstrieb,"  in  "Psychischen  Her- 
maphroditismus,"  in  the  "Neurotischen  Disposi- 
tion" and  in  the  *'Psychischen  Behandlung  der 
Trigeminusneuralgie,"  I  may  in  the  present  de- 
scription confine  myself  to  those  points  which 
promise  a  further  elucidation  of  the  relationship 
between  somatic-inferiority  and  psychic  compen- 
sation and  which  are  of  importance  in  the  study 
of  the  neurotic  character. 

Summarizing,  I  laj?-  stress  on  the  fact  that 
organ-inferiority,  as  described  by  me,  includes  the 
incompleteness  in  such  organs,  the  frequently 
demonstrable  arrests  of  development  or  func- 
tional maturity,  the  functional  failure  in  the  post- 
fetal  period  and  the  fetal  character  of  organs  and 
systems  of  organs;  on  the  other  hand  the  accen- 
tuation of  their  developmental  tendency  in  the 
presence    of    compensatory    and    coordinating 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  S 

forces  and  the  frequent  bringing  about  of  in- 
creased functional  activity.  One  may  easily  de- 
tect in  every  instance  from  observation  of  the 
child  and  from  the  anamneses  of  the  adult  that 
the  possession  of  definitely  inferior  organs  is  re- 
flected upon  the  psyche — and  in  such  a  way  as  to 
lower  the  self-esteem,  to  raise  the  child's  psycho- 
logical uncertainty;  but  it  is  just  out  of  this 
lowered  self-esteem  that  there  arises  the  struggle 
for  self-assertion  which  assumes  forms  much  more 
intense  than  one  would  expect.  As  the  compen- 
sated inferior  organ  gains  in  the  scope  of  activity 
both  qualitatively  and  quantitatively  and  acquires 
protective  means  from  itself  as  well  as  from  the 
entire  organism,  the  predisposed  child  in  his  sense 
of  inferiority  selects  out  of  his  psvchic  resources 
expedients  for  the  raising  of  his  own  value  which 
are  frequently  striking  in  nature  and  among 
which  may  be  noted  as  occupying  the  most  prom- 
inent places  those  of  a  neurotic  and  psychotic 
character. 

Ideas  concerning  innate  inferiority,  predispo- 
sition, and  constitutional  weakness  mav  be  found 
even  in  the  very  beginnings  of  scientific  medicine. 
In  leaving  out  of  discussion  here  many  note- 
worthy contributions,  although  they  frequently 
contained  fundamental  viewpoints,  we  do  so 
solely  because  the  relationship  between  organic 
and  psychic  disease  states,  albeit  dwelt  upon,  was 


4  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

never  explained.  In  this  class  belong  all  view- 
points of  pathology  which  are  founded  upon  a 
general  assumption  of  degeneracy.  Stiller's 
theory  of  the  asthenic  habitus  goes  considerably 
further  and  almost  attempts  to  establish  etiologi- 
cal relationships.  Anton's  compensation  theory 
confines  itself  all  too  closely  to  correlation  sj'^stems 
within  the  central  nervous  system;  nevertheless, 
he,  as  well  as  his  talented  pupil,  Otto  Gross,  have 
made  noteworthy  attempts  to  bring  about  on  this 
basis  a  clearer  understanding  of  certain  psychotic 
states.  Bouchard's  bradytrophj^  the  exudative 
diathesis  described  by  Ponflick,  Escherich, 
Czerny,  Moro  and  Striimpel,  and  interpreted  by 
them  as  a  disease-producing  diathesis,  Comby's 
infantile  arthritism,  Kreibich's  angio-neurotic 
diathesis,  Heubner's  lymphatism,  Poltauf 's  status 
thymico-lymphaticus,  Escherich's  spasmophilia 
and  Hess-Eppinger's  vagotonia  are  successful 
attempts  of  recent  decades  to  describe  disease 
states  associated  with  congenital  inferiority. 

All  of  them  refer  to  heredity  and  infantile 
characteristics.  But,  although  the  vague  and  in- 
constant limits  of  the  predispositions  in  question 
are  emphasized  by  the  authors  themselves,  the 
impression  is  not  to  be  ignored  that  certain  con- 
spicuous types  have  been  isolated  which  in  the 
course  of  time  will  be  brought  within  one  large 
group,  namely,  that  of  the  minus-variants.     Of 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  5 

extreme  importance  for  the  understanding  of 
congenital  inferiority  and  predisposition  to  dis- 
ease are  the  researches  into  the  glands  of  internal 
secretion  in  which  morphologic  as  well  as  func- 
tional deviations  have  been  discovered,  e.g.,  the 
thyroids,  the  parathyroids,  the  sex  glands,  the 
chromaffin  system  and  the  hypophysis.  Consid- 
ered from  the  standpoint  of  their  organ-inferiori- 
ties the  orientation  of  the  composite  picture  be- 
comes easier  and  the  relationship  to  compensation 
and  correlation  in  the  economy  of  the  entire  body 
becomes  clearer.  Among  the  remaining  inves- 
tigators who  took  as  the  basis  for  their  views  not 
a  primum-movens,  but  a  combined  influence  of 
various  organ-inferiorities  and  mutual  interac- 
tion of  the  same,  Martins,  above  all,  must  be  men- 
tioned. In  my  contribution  on  "The  Inferiority 
of  Organs"  (1907),  the  idea  of  the  coordination 
of  the  coexisting  inferiorities  likewise  appears 
prominently.  The  fact  is  not  to  be  lightly  evalu- 
ated that  the  simultaneously  existing  organ-in- 
feriorities stand  in  relation  to  one  another  as  if 
united  by  a  secret  bond. 

Bartel  likewise  has  extended  his  theories  con- 
cerning the  status  thjTnico-lymphaticus,  which 
represents  a  considerable  advance  in  science,  to 
such  limits  as  to  invade  the  boundaries  of  the  sys- 
tems of  other  authors.  Kyrle  too,  supporting 
himself  by  the  newly  discovered  pathological  find- 


6  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ings,  reached  quite  independently  conclusions 
identical  with  mine,  namely,  that  the  coordination 
of  the  inferiority  of  the  sexual  apparatus  with 
other  organ-inferiorities,  though  frequently  only 
slightly  developed,  is  nevertheless  so  often  found 
to  exist  that  I  must  maintain  that  there  exist  no 
organ-inferiorities  without  an  accompanying  de- 
fect in  the  sexual  apparatus. 

Because  of  some  future  considerations  I  must 
also  mention  certain  of  the  views  of  Freud  who 
assumes  a  sexual  constitution  as  the  basis  of  the 
neuroses  and  psychoses,  under  which  term  he  un- 
derstands a  qualitatively  and  quanitatively  vary- 
ing arrangement  of  partial  sex  impulses.  This 
assumption  simply  corresponds  to  a  postulate  ad- 
vanced by  him  for  his  other  views.  The  develop- 
ment of  perverse  inclinations  and  their  unsuccess- 
ful repression  into  the  unconscious  furnishes,  ac- 
cording to  him,  the  picture  of  the  neurosis,  and  in 
itself  forms  the  primary  cause  for  the  neurotic 
psyche.  We  shall  see  from  our  considerations 
that  perversion  so  far  as  it  reaches  development 
in  the  neurosis  and  psychosis  is  not  dependent 
upon  a  connate  impulse,  but  that  it  arises  from 
the  striving  towards  a  fictitious  goal  in  connection 
with  which  the  repression  takes  place  as  a  by- 
product under  the  pressure  of  the  self-conscious- 
ness. 

That  which,  however,  is  to  be  taken  cognizance 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  7 

of  biologically  in  an  originally  abnormal  sexual 
conduct,  namely,  the  greater  or  lesser  sensitive- 
ness, the  heightened  or  lowered  reflex  activity, 
the  functional  valency  as  well  as  the  compensa- 
tory psychic  superstructure  indicates  directly  as  I 
have  shown  in  my  "Studie"  a  congenital  defect  of 
the  sexual  organ. 

Concerning  the  nature  of  the  predisposition  to 
disease  dependent  upon  organ-inferiority  there 
exists  a  unanimity  of  opinion.  The  standpoint 
assumed  by  me  ("Studie,"  I.e.)  emphasizes  more 
strongl}"  than  does  that  of  other  authors,  the  as- 
surance of  an  adjustment  through  compensation. 
With  the  release  from  the  maternal  organism 
there  begins  for  these  inferior  organs  or  systems 
of  organs  the  struggle  with  the  outside  world, 
which  must  of  necessity  ensue  and  which  is  initi- 
ated with  greater  vehemence  than  in  the  more 
normally  developed  apparatus.  This  struggle  is 
accompanied  by  greater  mortality  and  morbidity 
rates.  This  fetal  character,  however,  at  the  same 
time  furnishes  the  increased  possibility  for  com- 
pensation and  over-compensation,  increases  the 
adaptability  to  ordinary  and  extraordinary  resist- 
ances and  assures  the  attainment  of  new  and 
higher  forms,  new  and  higher  accomplishments. 

Thus  the  inferior  organs  furnish  the  inexhaust- 
ible material  by  means  of  which  the  organism 
continuously  seeks  to  reach  a  better  accord  with 


8  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

the  altered  conditions  of  life  through  adapta- 
tion, repudiation,  and  improvement.  Its  hyper- 
valency  is  deeply  rooted  in  the  compulsion  of  a 
constant  training,  in  the  variability  and  greater 
tendency  to  growth,  frequentl}^  associated  with 
inferior  organs,  and  in  the  more  facile  evolution 
of  the  appertaining  nervous  and  psychic  com- 
plexes, on  account  of  the  introspection  and  con- 
centration bestowed  on  them.  The  evils  of  con- 
stitutional inferiority  manifest  themselves  in  the 
most  varied  diseases  and  predispositions  to  dis- 
ease. 

At  times  various  somatic  or  mental  disabilities 
develop,  at  other  times  an  over-irritability  of  the 
nerve  tracts,  then  again  clumsiness  of  manner, 
ungainliness,  precocity.  A  host  of  childhood  de- 
fects cooperate  with  the  predisposition  to  disease 
and  form  a  close  union,  as  I  have  shown,  with  the 
organic  or  functional  inferiority.  Strabismus, 
anomalies  of  refraction  of  the  visual  apparatus  or 
photophobia  with  its  train  of  symptoms,  deaf- 
mutism,  stuttering  and  other  defects  of  speech, 
difficulty  of  hearing,  the  organic  and  psychic  de- 
fects which  go  with  adenoid  vegetations,  the  com- 
plete aprosexia,  the  frequent  affections  of  the 
sensory  organs,  of  the  respiratory  and  digestive 
tracts,  striking  ugliness  and  deformities,  periph- 
eral stigmata  of  degeneration  and  naBvi  which 
may  indicate  more  profound  organ-inferiorities 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  9 

(Alder,  Schmidt).  Hydrocephalus,  rickets, 
anomalies  of  stature  as  scoliosis,  round  shoulders, 
genu  varus  or  valgus,  pes  varus  or  valgus,  a  pro- 
tracted incontinence  of  feces  and  urine,  malfor- 
mations of  the  genitals,  results  of  small  arteries 
(Virchow)  and  the  numerous  consequences  of 
defects  of  the  internal  secretoiy  glands  as  de- 
scribed by  Wagner  v.  Yauregg,  Frankl  v.  Hoch- 
vvert,  Chvostek,  B artel,  Escherich,  Pineles  and 
others,  all  of  which  reveal  in  their  great  abun- 
dance, in  the  variety  of  their  combinations,  the 
large  sphere  of  disease  manifestations  as  disclosed 
to  the  physician  through  an  understanding  of 
organ-inferiority.  It  was  especially  pediatrists 
and  pathologists  who  first  noted  these  relation- 
ships. But  the  concept  of  degeneracy  has  like- 
wise become  of  increasing  importance  to  neu- 
rology and  psychiatry.  The  line  of  advance 
stretches  all  the  way  from  Morel's  theory  of  the 
stigmata  of  degeneration  to  the  consideration  of 
nen^ous  diseases  from  the  standpoint  of  an  in- 
ferior constitution.  We  need  only  consider  the 
statistical  study  of  Thiemich-Birks  and  Potpesch- 
nigg's  contributions  (cited  by  Gutt)  concerning 
the  fate  of  children  who  were  treated  in  the  first 
and  second  years  of  their  lives  for  tetanoid  con- 
vulsions. Of  these  children  onlv  a  small  number 
became  entirely  well.  In  most  instances  there 
were  found  later  definite  signs  of  somatic  and 


10  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

psychic  inferiority,  psychopathic  and  neuropathic 
characteristics.  As  such,  these  authors  mention 
infantilism,  squints,  difficulty  of  hearing,  speech 
defects,  feeble-mindedness,  disturbances  of  sleep, 
pavor  nocturnus,  somnambulism,  enuresis,  exag- 
gerated reflexes,  tics,  paroxysms  of  rage,  truancy, 
timidity,  pathological  lying  and  habitual  fugues. 

Gott  as  well  as  other  authors  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  in  spasmophilic  children  there  exists 
a  predisposition  to  severe  neurotic  and  psycho- 
pathic states.  Czerny  and  others  maintain  that 
a  similar  relationship  may  be  found  in  children 
suffering  from  gastro-intestinal  disorders. 

Bartel  was  able  to  discover  among  suicides  a 
considerable  preponderance  of  the  status  thymico- 
lymphaticus, especially  a  hypoplasia  of  the  sexual 
organs.  The  existence  of  somatic  inferiority 
among  juvenile  suicides  was  shown  by  me,  Net- 
slitzky  and  others.  Frankl  v.  Hochwert  de- 
scribed states  of  excitement,  irritability  and  hal- 
lucinatory  confusion,  in  tetany.  French  writers 
(cited  from  Pfaundler)  ascribe  to  the  torpid 
habitus  of  children,  moroseness,  indolence,  sleepi- 
ness, distractibility,  stupidity  and  phlegmatism, 
to  the  erotistic  type,  restlessness,  liveliness,  irri- 
tability, precocity,  moodiness,  affectivity,  unso- 
ciability, peculiarity  of  disposition  and  one-sided 
development.  Pfaundler  emphasizes  the  harass- 
ing, tormenting  and  painful  influences  to  which 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  11 

defective  children  are  subject  as  a  result  of  skin 
eruptions,  colic,  disturbances  of  sleep  and  func- 
tional anomalies.  Czerny,  who  called  attention 
to  the  relationship  between  intestinal  disturb- 
ances of  children  and  neuroses,  emphasizes  es- 
pecially the  importance  of  psychotherapy  in  chil- 
dren who  became  neurotic  in  the  course  of  consti- 
tutional diseases.  Only  recently  Hamburger  has 
thrown  light  upon  the  nature  of  the  ambitions  in 
neurotic  children,  while  Stransky  showed  the  re- 
lation between  myopathy  and  psychic  manifesta- 
tions. 

These  brief  references  give  us  an  insight  into 
the  attempts  of  the  present  day  scientific  trends 
to  emphasize  and  maintain  the  relation  between 
psychic  anomalies  in  childhood  and  constitutional 
inferiority.  The  first  comprehensive  funda- 
mental views  concerning  this  relation  were  pub- 
lished by  me  in  the  "Studie,"  wherein  I  showed 
how  the  inferior  organ  constantly  endeavors  to 
make  a  very  special  demand  upon  the  interest  and 
attention.  I  was  able  to  prove  in  this  and  other 
contributions  to  what  extent  inferiority  of  an 
organ  constantly  shows  its  influence  on  the  psyche 
in  action,  in  thought,  in  dreams,  in  the  choice  of  a 
vocation  and  in  artistic  inclinations  and  capabil- 
ities.^ 

iSee   also    Adler,   "The   Theory   of   Organ-inferiority   and    Its 
Significajice    for    Philosophy    and    Psychology."    Address    in   the 


12  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  existence  of  an  inferior  organ  demands  a 
kind  of  training  on  the  part  of  the  appertaining 
nerve  tracts  and  on  the  part  of  the  psychic  super- 
structure which  would  render  the  latter  active  in 
a  compensatory  manner  when  a  possibility  for 
compensation  exists.  In  such  an  event,  however, 
we  must  Hkewise  find  a  reenf orcement  in  the  psy- 
chic superstructure  of  certain  allied  points  of  con- 
tact which  the  inferior  organ  has  with  the  outside 
world. 

To  the  originally  inferior  organ  of  vision  cor- 
responds a  reenf orced  visual  psyche;  a  defective 
digestive  apparatus  will  be  accompanied  by  a 
greater  psychic  capability  in  all  nutritional  direc- 
tions, as  gourmondism,  acquisitiveness,  and  where 
it  concerns  money  equivalents,  stinginess  and 
greed,  will  be  manifested  to  an  extraordinary  de- 
gree. 

The  ability  of  the  compensating  nervous  sys- 
tem will  manifest  itself  through  qualified  reflexes 
(Adler)  and  conditioned  reflexes  (Bickel)  by 
means  of  sensitive  reactions  and  exaggerated  sen- 
sitiveness. The  compensating  psychic  super- 
structiu-e  will  bring  about  an  accentuated  mani- 
festation of  the  psychic  phenomena  of  presenti- 
ments and  forethoughts  and  their  effective  fac- 
tors  such   as  memory,   intuition,   introspection, 

Philosophic    Society    of    the    Vienna    University,    1908,    and    J. 
Reich,  "Art  and  the  Eye,"  Oesterreichische  Rundschau,  1908. 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  13 

analysis,  attention,  hypersensitiveness,  in  brief, 
of  all  the  fortifying  psychic  forces.  To  these  re- 
assuring forces  belong  also  the  fixation  and 
accentuation  of  those  traits  which  form  useful 
guiding  principles  in  the  chaos  of  life,  thus  dimin- 
ishing the  feeling  of  uncertainty. 

The  neurotic  individual  is  derived  from  this 
sphere  of  uncertainty  and  in  his  childhood  is 
under  the  pressure  of  his  constitutional  inferior- 
ity. In  most  cases  this  may  be  easily  detected. 
In  other  cases  the  patient  behaves  as  if  he  were 
inferior.  In  all  cases,  however,  his  striving  and 
thinking  are  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the 
feeling  of  inferiority.  This  feeling  must  always 
be  understood  in  a  relative  sense,  as  the  outgrowth 
of  the  individual's  relation  to  his  environment  or 
to  his  strivings.  He  has  constantly  been  draw- 
ing comparisons  between  himself  and  others,  at 
first  with  his  father,  as  the  strongest  in  the  family, 
sometimes  with  his  mother,  his  brothers  and  sis- 
ters, later  with  every  person  with  whom  he  comes 
into  contact.  Upon  closer  analysis,  one  finds 
that  every  child,  especially  the  one  less  favored  by 
nature,  has  made  a  careful  estimate  of  his  own 
value.  The  constitutionally  inferior  child,  the 
unattractive  child,  the  child  too  strictly  reared, 
the  pampered  child,  all  of  whom  we  may  align  as 
being  predisposed  to  the  development  of  a  neuro- 
sis, seek  more  diligently  than  does  the  normal  child 


14  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

to  avoid  the  evils  of  their  existence.  They  soon 
long  to  banish  into  a  distant  future  the  fate  which 
confronts  them.  In  order  to  bring  this  about, 
he,  the  defective  child,  requires  an  expedient 
which  enables  him  to  keep  before  his  eyes  a  fixed 
picture  in  the  vicissitudes  of  life  and  the  uncer- 
tainty of  his  existence.  He  turns  to  the  con- 
struction of  this  expedient.  He  sums  up  in  his 
self-estimation  all  evils,  considers  himself  incom- 
petent, inferior,  degraded,  insecure.  And  in 
order  to  find  a  guiding  principle  he  takes  as  a 
second  fixed  point  his  father  or  mother  who  en- 
dowed him  with  all  the  attributes  of  life. 

And  in  adjusting  this  guiding  principle  to  his 
thinking  and  acting,  in  his  endeavors  to  raise  him- 
self to  the  level  of  his  (all-powerful)  father,  even 
to  the  point  of  surpassing  the  latter,  he  has  quite 
removed  himself  with  one  mighty  bound  from 
reality  and  is  suspended  in  the  meshes  of  a  fic- 
tion. 

Similar  observ^ations  may  also  be  made  in  a 
lesser  degree  among  normal  children.  They  too 
desire  to  be  great,  to  be  strong,  to  rule  as  the 
father,  and  are  guided  by  this  objective.  Their 
conduct,  their  psychical  and  physical  attitude  is 
constantly  directed  towards  this  goal,  so  that  one 
may  almost  detect  a  true  imitation,  an  identical 
psychic  gesture. 

Example  becomes  the  guide  to  the  "masculine" 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  15 

goal,  SO  long  as  the  masculinity  is  not  doubted. 
Should  the  idea  of  "the  masculine  goal"  become 
unacceptable  to  girls,  then  there  takes  place  a 
change  of  form  of  this  "masculine"  guiding  prin- 
ciple. One  can  scarcely  evaluate  this  phenome- 
non in  a  more  correct  way  than  by  assuming  that 
the  necessary  denial  of  the  gi'atification  of  certain 
organic  functions  forces  the  child  from  the  first 
hour  of  his  extrauterine  life  into  assuming  a  com- 
bative attitude  towards  his  environment.  From 
this  result  tensions  and  accentuations  of  certain 
organically  acquired  abilities — c^est  la  guerre! — 
as  I  have  described  them  in  my  "Studie"  and  the 
"Aggressionstrieb."  ^ 

In  the  temporary  denials  and  discomforts 
which  the  first  years  of  childhood  bring  with 
them,  one  must  seek  the  impulse  for  the  develop- 
ment of  a  host  of  common  traits  of  character. 
Above  all  the  child  learns,  in  his  weakness  and 
helplessness,  in  his  anxiety  and  manifold  short- 
comings to  value  an  expedient  which  assures  him 
of  the  help  and  support  of  his  relatives  and  guar- 
antees their  concern.  In  his  negativistic  be- 
havior, in  his  obstinacy  and  refractoriness,  he 
often  finds  a  gratification  of  his  consciousness  of 
his  o-vvn  powers,  thus  ridding  himself  of  the  pain- 
ful realization  of  his  inferiority.     Both  main- 

2  Adler,  "Der  Aggressionstrieb  im  Leben  und  in  der  Neurose," 
1.  c. 


16  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

springs  of  the  child's  behavior,  obstinacy  and 
obedience  (Adler,  "Trotz  and  Gehorsam")  guar- 
antee to  him  an  accentuation  of  his  feehng  of  ego- 
consciousness  and  assist  him  in  groping  his  way 
towards  the  mascuhne  goal  or,  as  we  wished  to 
adduce  before,  towards  the  equivalent  of  this. 
The  awakening  self-consciousness  is  always  being 
suppressed  in  constitutionally  inferior  children, 
their  self-esteem  is  lowered  because  their  capacity 
for  gratification  is  much  more  limited. 

Let  us  consider  the  numerous  restrictions,  the 
courses  of  treatment  and  the  sufferings  of  chil- 
dren ill  with  gastro-intestinal  derangements;  the 
effeminacy  and  fastidiousness  seen  in  the  anaemic, 
weakly  children  suffering  from  respiratory  dis- 
orders; the  itching  and  tortures  of  those  afflicted 
with  prurigo  and  other  exanthemata;  the  many 
degrading  defects  of  childhood;  the  fear  of  con- 
tamination on  the  part  of  the  parents  of  such  chil- 
dren which  often  leads,  as  do  the  frequent  difficul- 
ties in  their  bringing  up — in  their  school  progress 
as  well  as  the  stubbornness  of  these  children — to 
an  isolation  and  misunderstanding  on  the  part  of 
their  comrades  and  within  the  family  circle.  In 
the  same  manner  the  self-consciousness  is  injured 
by  rachitic  clumsiness,  congenital  obesity  and  the 
lesser  grades  of  mental  backwardness.  The  child 
usually  explains  his  difficulty  by  the  assumption 
of  a  neglect,  a  slight  by  the  parents,  especially  as 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  17 

it  occurs  in  later  children  or  in  the  youngest,  occa- 
sionally even  in  the  first  born.  This  hostile  ag- 
gression, reenforced  and  accentuated  in  constitu- 
tionally inferior  children,  becomes  confluent  with 
his  effort  to  become  as  great  and  strong  as  the 
strongest  and  thrusts  forward  activities  which  lie 
at  the  bottom  of  the  infantile  ambition.  All  later 
trains  of  thought  and  activities  of  the  neurotic 
are  constructed  similarly  with  his  childhood  wish 
phantasy.  The  "recurrence  of  the  identical" 
(Nietzsche)  is  nowhere  so  well  illustrated  as  in 
the  neurotic.  His  feeling  of  inferiority  in  the 
presence  of  men  and  things,  his  uncertainty  in  the 
world  force  him  to  an  accentuation  of  his  guiding 
principles.  To  these  he  clings  throughout  life  in 
order  to  orient  himself  in  existence  by  means  of 
his  beliefs  and  superstitions,  in  order  to  overcome 
his  feeling  of  inferiority,  in  order  to  rescue  his 
sense  of  ego-consciousness,  in  order  to  possess  a 
subterfuge  to  avoid  a  much-dreaded  degradation. 
Never  has  he  succeeded  so  well  in  this  as  during 
his  childhood.  His  guiding  fiction  which  makes 
him  behave  as  if  he  surpassed  all  others  may 
therefore  also  bring  about  a  form  of  conduct  iden- 
tical with  that  of  the  child. 

In  such  manner  then  the  infantile  gratifica- 
tions become  criteria  and  thus  strengthen  the 
guiding  principle.  It  would  be  amiss  to  assume 
that  only  the  neurotic  exhibits  such  "guiding  prin- 


18  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ciples."  The  healthy  individual  would  also  have 
to  do  without  orientation  in  the  world  if  he  did 
not  arrange  the  cosmic  picture  and  his  expe- 
rience according  to  some  imaginary  fiction.  In 
hours  of  uncertainty  these  fictions  come  to  the 
fore  more  distinctly  and  become  the  imperative 
influences  dominating  beliefs,  ideals  and  free  will ; 
moreover  they  also  act  secretly  in  the  unconscious 
like  all  other  psychic  mechanisms  whose  verbal 
image  they  represent  in  conscious  thought.  Log- 
ically considered  they  are  to  be  regarded  as  ab- 
stractions, as  simplifications,  which  have  for  their 
object  the  solution  of  life's  difficulties  in  a  manner 
analogous  to  that  required  for  the  simplest  expe- 
riences. The  original  type  of  these  simplest  ex- 
periences, the  meshwork  of  apperceptive  memory, 
we  found  in  studying  the  child's  efforts  to  solve 
his  difficulties.  In  dreams  this  form  of  appercep- 
tion is  still  more  obvious;  we  shall  consider  this 
subject  later. 

The  neurotic  carries  his  feeling  of  inferiority 
constantly  with  him.  Hence  his  method  of  think- 
ing by  analogy  is  more  strongly  and  clearly  de- 
veloped. 

His  "misoneism"  (Lombroso),  his  fear  of  the 
new,  of  decisions  and  tests,  which  is  usually 
present,  originates  from  the  lack  of  analogy  for 
these  new  conditions.  He  has  chained  himself 
so  strongly  to  guiding  principles,  taken  them 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  19 

SO  literally  and  sought  to  realize  them  only,  that 
unconsciously  he  has  become  incapable  of  pro- 
ceeding freely  and  without  prejudice  to  the  solu- 
tion of  real  problems.  Even  the  necessary  limi- 
tations imposed  by  reality,  where  matters  clash 
for  want  of  room,  do  not  impel  him  to  reject  his 
fiction  because  he  is  forced  to  suspend  it,  but 
only  to  alter  it.  Still  more  consequentially  the 
psychotic  patient  strives  to  bring  about  a  realiza- 
tion of  his  fiction.  The  neurotic  in  real  life 
flounders  in  his  self-created  guiding  principle  and 
thus  arrives  at  a  splitting  of  the  personality  in 
seeking  to  do  justice  to  both  the  real  and  the 
imaginary  requirements.  The  form  and  content 
of  the  neurotic  "guiding  principle"  originate 
from  the  impressions  of  the  child  who  feels  him- 
self neglected.  These  impressions,  which  of 
necessity  develop  out  of  an  original  sense  of  in- 
feriority, call  forth  an  aggressive  attitude  in  life, 
the  object  of  which  is  the  overcoming  of  the  un- 
certainty. In  this  attitude  of  aggression  all 
those  efforts  of  the  child  which  tend  toward  an 
elevation  of  his  feeling  of  ego-consciousness  find 
their  place,  successful  efforts  which  prompt  a 
repetition,  unsuccessful  ones  which  serve  as  me- 
mentoes for  those  goal-preparing  tendencies  de- 
veloped out  of  a  conspicuous  organic  disease  and 
which  express  themselves  in  a  mass  of  psychic 
predispositions,   as   well   as   those   observed   in 


20  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

others.  All  the  phenomena  of  the  neuroses  orig- 
inate from  these  predisposing  means  which  tend 
toward  the  attainment  of  the  final  object,  mascu- 
linity. They  are  mental  predispositions  always 
ready  to  initiate  the  struggle  for  ego-conscious- 
ness, they  obej^  the  command  of  the  guiding  prin- 
ciple which  seeks  to  realize  itself  through  the 
channels  of  reactions  lying  ready  at  hand  in  child- 
hood. In  the  developed  neuroses  the  fiction 
stimulates  all  these  predispositions  whereupon 
they  comport  themselves  as  independent  final 
purposes.  Anxiety,  which  formerly  sought  to 
furnish  assurance  against  being  alone,  against 
underestimation,  against  the  feeling  of  insignifi- 
cance, is  hypostasized ;  the  compulsion,  originally 
in  the  sense  of  the  fiction  to  preserve  a  manly  be- 
havior, becomes  independent;  in  fainting,  in 
paralysis,  in  the  hysterical  pains  and  functional 
disturbances,  the  pseudo-masochistic  method  of 
the  patient  is  symbolically  represented,  in  which 
he  seeks  to  attract  attention  or  to  avoid  a  decision 
which  is  feared.  The  important  role  played  by 
the  neurotic  uncertainty,  as  I  have  recognized 
and  described  it,  leads  to  that  sort  of  strengthen- 
ing of  the  predisposition  and  its  consequences 
which  makes  the  originally  unimportant  phenom- 
ena of  a  functional  nature  assume  the  most  aston- 
ishing exaggeration  as  soon  as  the  inner  exigency 
demands  it. 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  21 

The  gaze  of  the  neurotic,  on  account  of  this 
feehng  of  uncertainty,  is  directed  far  into  the 
future.  All  present  existence  is  to  him  only  a 
preparation.  Moreover  this  circumstance  is 
largely  responsible  for  encouraging  his  dreaming 
proclivities  and  estranging  him  from  the  world 
of  reality.  As  with  religious  persons  his  king- 
dom is  not  of  this  world  and  like  them  he  cannot 
free  himself  from  his  self -created  deity,  the  exal- 
tation of  his  ego-consciousness.  A  host  of  gen- 
eral traits  of  character  of  necessity  develop  in  an 
individual  thus  turned  awaj^  from  reality.  First 
of  all  must  be  mentioned  the  deep  reverence  in 
which  are  held  the  expedients  which  subserve  the 
fiction.  An  individual  of  this  type  will  as  a  rule 
manifest  a  carefully  adjusted  mode  of  behavior, 
exactness  and  pedantry,  first  of  all,  in  order  not 
to  increase  the  great  difficulties  of  life  and  sec- 
ondly and  principally,  in  order  to  distinguish  him- 
self from  others  in  dress,  in  work,  in  morals,  and 
thus  acquire  for  himself  a  feeling  of  superiority. 
This  exaggerated  trait  of  character  usually  serves 
also  to  bring  him  face  to  face  with  the  enemy, 
to  furnish  the  opportunity  for  a  maturing  of  such 
situations  as  will  bring  him  into  conflict  with  his 
environment  so  that  he  finds  occasion  for  giving 
vent  to  reproaches.  At  the  same  time  these  con- 
stant reproaches  serve  to  keep  alive  his  feeling, 
his  attention,  to  the  fact  that  people  are  neglect- 


22  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ing  him,  tliat  they  are  not  taking  him  into  ac- 
count. This  trait  may  be  found  even  in  the  child- 
hood of  certain  neurotics  where  it  serves  the  pur- 
pose of  putting  some  one  at  their  service,  say  the 
mother,  who  must  take'  care  of  their  clothes  every 
evening  for  a  considerable  length  of  time  in  a 
definitely  prescribed  manner.  In  a  similarly  re- 
markable manner,  anxiety  and  timidity  gain  ex- 
pression and  I  must  adhere  to  the  opinion,  in  sj^ite 
of  all  other  attempts  at  explanation,  that  the  psy- 
chic phenomena  of  anxiety  originate  from  an  hal- 
lucinatory excitation  of  a  predisposition  which  in 
childhood  developed  automatically  from  small 
beginnings  as  soon  as  a  bodily  injury  was  threat- 
ened, and  which  in  later  life,  especially  in  the 
neuroses,  is  conditioned  by  the  final  goal,  namely, 
to  escape  a  lowering  of  ego-consciousness  and  to 
make  oneself  of  service  to  others.  It  is  easy  to 
understand  how  all  wish-phantasies  may  attain 
an  enormous  degree,  just  as  attainment  seldom 
brings  with  it  satisfaction.  One  may  assume 
without  fear  of  contradiction  that  a  neurotic 
"wishes  to  have  everj^thing."  This  desire  coin- 
cides with  his  "guiding  fiction"  to  become  potent. 
If  he  draws  back  in  horror  before  undertakings 
which  promise  advantage,  as  he  usually  does  be- 
fore crimes  and  immoral  acts,  it  is  because  he  en- 
tertains fears  for  the  safety  of  his  ego-conscious- 
ness.    For  this  reason  he  recoils  in  horror  from 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  23 

lying,  but  in  order  to  proceed  with  certainty  and 
in  order  to  preserve  steadfastness  he  may  harbor 
the  thought  that  he  is  capable  of  great  evils  and 
crimes.  That  this  obstinate  pursuit  of  the  fiction 
implies  a  social  injury  is  obvious. 

The  egoism  of  neurotics,  their  envy,  their 
greed,  frequently  unconscious,  their  tendency  to 
undervalue  men  and  things,  originate  in  their 
feeling  of  uncertainty  and  serve  the  purpose  of 
assuring  them,  of  guiding  them  and  of  spurring 
them  on.  As  they  are  enveloped  in  phantasy 
and  live  in  the  future  their  preoccupation  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at.  The  variability  of  temper 
depends  on  the  play  of  the  phantasy  which  at  one 
time  awakens  painful  memories,  at  another  fills 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  an  expected  triumph, 
analogous  to  the  vacillations  and  doubts  of  the 
neurotic.  In  the  same  way  special  traits  of  char- 
acter which  are  not  foreign  to  the  normal  psyche 
appear  to  be  directed  by  the  hypnotizing  goal  and 
strengthened  in  this  direction.  Sexual  precocity 
and  falling  in  love  are  forms  of  expression  for 
the  heightened  tendency  to  captivate.  Mastur- 
bation, impotence  and  perverse  excitements  lie  in 
the  direction  of  the  guiding  line  of  fear  of  a  part- 
ner and  fear  of  separation,  along  with  which 
sadism  represents  the  desire  to  play  the  "wild 
man"  in  order  to  overcome  the  feeling  of  inferior- 
ity.    As  the  driving  force  and  goal  of  the  neurosis 


24  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

developing  out  of  a  constitutional  inferiority,  we 
have  up  to  this  point  regarded  the  accentuation 
of  ego-consciousness  which  constantly  strives  for 
expression  with  especial  force.  In  doing  so  we 
have  not  ignored  the  fact  that  this  is  only  a  mode 
of  expression  of  a  striving  and  yearning  whose 
beginnings  are  deeply  rooted  in  human  nature. 
The  form  of  expression  itself  and  the  accentua- 
tion of  this  guiding  thought,  which  may  also  be 
expressed  by  Nietzsche's  "will  to  power,"  teaches 
us  that  there  is  an  especial  compensator}^  force  at 
play,  whose  object  it  is  to  put  an  end  to  the  inner 
uncertainty.  By  means  of  an  unyielding  for- 
mula, which  usually  presses  to  the  surface  of  con- 
sciousness, the  neurotic  seeks  to  obtain  the  ful- 
crum whereby  to  lift  the  world  off  of  its  hinges. 
It  matters  but  little  how  much  of  this  driving 
force  becomes  consciously  known  to  the  neurotic. 
The  mechanism  itself  he  never  understands, 
neither  is  he  able  to  explain  and  break  down  un- 
aided his  mode  of  apperception  by  means  of  anal- 
ogy and  the  conduct  resulting  therefrom.  This 
can  only  succeed  by  means  of  an  analytic  process 
which  permits  us  to  divine  and  understand  his 
infantile  analogy  by  means  of  abstraction,  reduc- 
tion and  simplification.  In  this  way  one  finds 
regularly  apparent  that  the  neurotic  always  ap- 
perceives  after  the  analogy  of  a  contrast,  indeed, 
that  usually  he  only  recognizes  and  gives  value 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  25 

to  relations  of  contrast.  This  primitive  mode  of 
orientation  in  life  which  corresponds  to  the  an- 
tithesis as  set  forth  in  the  categories  of  Aristotle 
and  to  opposites  in  the  Pythagorean  table  orig- 
inates also  in  the  feeling  of  uncertainty  and  illus- 
trates a  simple  device  of  logic.  What  I  have 
described  as  polar,  hermaphroditic  opposites, 
Lombroso  as  bipolar,  Bleuler  as  ambivalent,  leads 
to  this  same  method  of  apperception  which  works 
according  to  the  principal  of  opposites.  One 
should  not  fall  into  the  common  error  of  regard- 
ing this  as  an  essence  of  things,  but  must  recog- 
nize in  it  the  primitive  method  of  procedure  which 
measures  a  thing,  a  force,  or  an  event,  by  an  op- 
posite which  is  fitted  to  it. 

The  further  the  analysis  proceeds  the  more  dis- 
tinct appears  one  of  these  opposites,  the  original 
form  of  which  we  have  established  as  the  feeling 
of  inferiority  and  the  maximation  of  the  ego-con- 
sciousness. This  only  agrees  with  the  primitive 
efforts  of  the  child  to  orient  himself  in  the  world 
and  to  obtain  certainty  when  tangible  antitheses 
are  encoimtered.  Among  these  I  have  regularly 
found  the  following:  (1).  Above — beneath,  (2). 
JNIasculine — feminine.  One  furthermore  always 
finds  an  arrangement  of  memories,  feelings  and 
actions  according  to  this  type  of  antitheses  in  the 
sense  the  patient  takes  them  (not  alwaj^s  in  the 
generally  accepted  sense),  i.e.,  inferior — beneath. 


26  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

feminine;  powerful — above,  masculine.  This 
grouping  is  important  for  it  renders  possible,  be- 
cause it  can  be»  conserved  or  falsified  at  will,  the 
distortion  of  the  cosmic  picture,  whereby  the  neu- 
rotic can  always  hold  fast  to  his  standpoint, 
namely,  that  of  a  neglected  person,  by  rearrange- 
ment, by  accentuation  or  by  arbitrary  changes. 
It  lies  in  the  nature  of  things  that  in  this  process 
his  constitutional  inferiority  comes  to  his  assist- 
ance as  well  as  his  constantly  increasing  aggres- 
sive environment  which  is  continually  set  into 
activity  by  the  neurotic  conduct  of  the  patient. 

At  times  the  neurotic  is  not  fully  conscious  of 
his  supposed  or  real  defeat.  It  is  then  always 
found  that  it  is  his  pride  which  prevents  him 
from  recognizing  it.  Nevertheless  he  acts  as  if 
he  had  appreciated  the  new  degradation  and  the 
riddle  of  a  nervous  attack  is  often  only  solved 
when  this  fact  is  understood.  The  revelation  of 
such  repressed  feelings  is  not  of  much  therapeutic 
value,  at  least,  it  can  only  be  of  value  when  by 
means  of  it  the  connection  with  the  infantile 
mechanism  which  is  responsible  for  the  predis- 
position to  the  attack  becomes  apparent  to  the 
patient.  At  times  there  results  even  a  seeming 
relapse  which  may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that 
the  patient  directs  his  predispositions  against  the 
physician  because  the  latter  has  injured  his  feel- 
ings of  personal  worth. 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  27 

There  still  remains  to  be  answered  one  im- 
portant question.  On  what  does  the  patient 
base  his  feeling  of  inferiority?  Inasmuch  as  the 
patient  is  only  able  to  detect  the  possibility  of  re- 
lationship between  disease  predispositions  and 
those  organ-inferiorities  which  force  themselves 
upon  his  attention  he  is  constantly  in  the  path  of 
conjecture.  He  will  for  example  not  seek  the 
reason  for  his  inferiorities  in  the  disturbances  of 
the  secretions  of  the  glands,  but  will  blame  in  a 
general  way  his  weakness,  his  stunted  growth, 
his  sham  education,  the  small  size  or  anomalies  of 
his  genitals,  lack  of  complete  virility,  his  effemi- 
nacy, the  feminine  traits  of  a  physical  or  psychic 
nature,  his  parents,  his  heredity;  at  times  only 
lack  of  love,  bad  training,  deprivation  in  child- 
hood, etc.  And  what  about  his  neurosis,  the  neu- 
rosis in  the  sense  we  understand  it  ?  We  shall  find 
that  the  accentuation  of  his  predispositions  on  an 
analogic,  childish  basis,  that  his  symbolized 
thoughts,  his  preparations  for  feelings,  and  re- 
sults used  by  him  as  means  of  expression  will 
spring  into  action  as  soon  as  the  patient  fears  or 
experiences  a  set-back.  Being  from  a  certain 
situation,  so  to  speak,  inoculated  with  the  feelings 
of  inferiority,  he  exhibits  an  anaphylactic  reac- 
tion against  depreciation  of  his  ego-conscious- 
ness and  finds  in  irresolution,  in  vacillation,  in 
doubt  and  in  skepticism,  as  well  as  in  the  break- 


28  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ing  out  of  a  neurosis  or  a  psychosis,  a  refuge  and 
security  agahist  the  greatest  evil  that  could  be- 
fall him,  namely,  the  conjuring  up  of  a  distinct 
realization  of  his  inferiority.  In  line  with  this 
the  typical  causes  of  the  onset  of  a  neurosis  and 
psychosis  are  easy  to  divine  and  to  prove: 

1.  The  desire  for  knowledge  of  sex  differences, 
the  uncertainty  concerning  his  own  sexual  role, 
may  be  looked  upon  as  causes  of  the  arousing  of 
the  feeling  of  inferiority.  Likewise  the  realiza- 
tion and  grouping  of  traits  believed  to  be  fem- 
inine, the  vacillating,  doubting,  hermaphrodistic 
apperception  and  hermaphrodistic  predisposi- 
tion. Predisposition  to  and  psychic  gestures  of 
the  feminine  role  always  entail  greater  passivity, 
anxious  anticipation,  etc.,  but  call  forth  the  mas- 
culine protest,  stronger  emotivity.   (Heymanns) 

2.  Onset  of  menstruation. 

3.  Epoch  of  menstrual  activity. 

4.  Epoch  of  sexual  activity. 

5.  The  stage  of  fitness  for  marriage. 

6.  Pregnancy. 

7.  Puerperium. 

8.  Climacteric,  reduction  of  potency. 

9.  Examinations,  choice  of  profession. 
10.  Danger  of  death. 

All  these  epochs  call  forth  heightening  of  or 
changes  in  the  preparatory  attitude  toward  life. 
The  bond  common  to  them  all  which  holds  them 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  29 

together  is  the  expectation  of  new  events  which 
imply  for  the  neurotic  new  struggles,  new  dan- 
gers of  a  set-back.  He  proceeds  therefore  im- 
mediately to  intensive  protective  measures,  the 
most  extreme  of  which  is  suicide.  Outbreaks  of 
neuroses  and  psychoses  represent  accentuations 
of  his  neurotic  preparedness,  predispositions  in 
which  are  always  found  prominent  traits  of  char- 
acter, calculated  to  guarantee  this  sort  of  secur- 
ity, such  as  exaggeration  of  hypersensitiveness, 
greater  carefulness,  irritability,  pedantry,  ob- 
stinacy, stinginess,  discontent,  impatience,  and 
many  others.  As  these  traits  are  easily  demon- 
strable, they  are  especially  suitable  for  deter- 
mining the  existence  of  a  psychogenic  disorder. 
We  arrived  at  the  conclusion  in  the  foregoing 
that  it  is  the  feeling  of  uncertainty  which  forces 
the  neurotic  to  a  stronger  attachment  to  fictions, 
guiding  principles,  ideals,  dogmas.  These  guid- 
ing principles  float  before  the  normal  person  also. 
But  to  him  they  are  a  figure  of  speech,  a  device 
for  distinguishing  above  from  below,  left  from 
right,  right  from  wi'ong,  and  he  is  not  so  involved 
in  prejudice  that  when  called  upon  to  make  a  de- 
cision he  cannot  free  himself  from  the  abstract 
and  reckon  with  reality.  Just  as  little  do  the 
phenomena  of  life  resolve  themselves  for  him  into 
strict  antitheses,  but  on  the  contrary  he  is  striv- 
ing constantly  to  keep  his  thoughts  and  actions 


80  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

detached  from  this  unreal  principle  and  to  bring 
them  into  harmony  with  reality.  That  he  uscb 
artifices  at  all  as  a  means  to  an  end  arises  from 
the  usefulness  of  the  fiction  in  casting  up  the  ac- 
counts of  life.  The  neurotic,  however,  like  the 
child  devoid  of  contact  with  life  and  like  the  prim- 
itive understanding  of  early  man  catches  at  the 
straw  of  his  fiction,  hypostasizes  it,  arbitrarily 
ascribes  to  it  a  real  value  and  seeks  to  realize  it  in 
the  world.  For  this  the  fiction  is  imfitted,  still 
more  unfitted  when,  as  in  the  psychoses,  it  is  ele- 
vated to  a  dogma  or  anthropomorphosed.  The 
symbol  as  a  "modus  dicendi"  dominates  our 
speech  and  thought.  The  neurotic  takes  it  liter- 
ally and  in  the  psychosis  the  realization  is  at- 
tempted. In  my  contributions  to  the  theory  of 
the  neuroses  this  point  is  constantly  emphasized 
\  and  maintained.  A  fortunate  circumstance 
made  me  acquainted  with  Vaihinger's  ingenious 
"Philosophy  of  the  *As  If"  (Berlin,  1911),  a 
work  in  which  I  found  the  trains  of  thought  sug- 
gested to  me  by  the  neurosis  set  forth  as  valid  for 
general  scientific  thought. 

After  we  have  established  that  the  fictitious 
guiding  goal  of  the  neurotic  consists  of  an  un- 
limited heightening  of  the  ego-consciousness 
which  deteriorates  into  the  "will  to  seem"  (Nie- 
tzsche )  we  may  proceed  to  a  consideration  of  the 
abstract  conception  of  these  problems  of  life.    In- 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  81 

asmuch  as  in  seeking  the  sex  differentiation  the 
role  of  the  male  is  given  a  decided  preference,  the 
formal  changes  agreeing  with  the  antithesis,  man- 
woman,  begin  at  an  early  period  and  for  the  neu- 
rotic arises  the  formula  "  I  must  act  as  though  I 
were  a  complete  man  (or  would  become  one)." 
The  feeling  of  inferiority  and  its  consequences 
become  identified  with  the  feeling  of  effeminacy, 
the  compensatory  pressure  in  the  psychic  super- 
structure impels  toward  obtaining  a  guarantee 
that  the  manly  role  will  be  preserved  and  the 
meaning  of  the  neurosis  assumes  the  form  of  the 
antithetical,  fundamental  thought,  "I  am  a 
woman  and  will  be  a  man." 

This  guiding  final  purpose  supphes  the  psy- 
chic gestures  and  predispositions  necessary  for 
this  thought,  but  is  expressed  likewise  in  the  atti- 
tudes of  the  body  and  in  mimicry.  And  with 
these  prepared  gestures,  of  which  the  neurotic 
traits  of  character  are  to  be  considered  a  herald- 
ing, the  neurotic  confronts  persons  and  life, 
anxiously  and  with  strained  attention  asking  if 
he  will  prove  himself  a  man.  Sham  combats  play 
a  great  role ;  they  are  begun  so  that  the  neurotic 
may  exercise  himself,  that  he  may  gain  experi- 
ence from  other  or  similar  conditions,  so  that  he 
may  become  more  cautious,  and  in  order  to  ob- 
tain proof  from  example  that  he  dare  not  venture 
upon  the  main  battle.     How  much  in  this  he  re- 


32  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

arranges,  exaggerates,  depreciates,  which  is  pos- 
sible to  him  from  a  certain  arbitrariness  (INIeyer- 
hoff),  how  he  falsely  classifies  and  how  he  seeks 
to  put  his  fiction  on  firm  foundation,  demand  a 
separate  consideration,  such  as  I  have  tentatively 
furnished  in  the  preliminary  work  for  this  book. 
That  in  this  masculine  protest,  however,  there 
lies  for  the  neurotic  the  more  fundamentally  com- 
pensating "will  to  power"  which  may  change  the 
value  of  feelings  and  even  transform  pleasure 
into  pain  is  proved  by  the  frequent  cases  where 
the  direct  effort  to  act  like  a  man  meets  with  ob- 
stacles and  avails  itself  of  a  circuitous  route,  in 
which  event  the  role  of  the  woman  is  overvalued, 
passive  traits  are  strengthened,  masochistic,  and 
in  men,  passive  homosexual  traits  emerge,  by 
means  of  which  the  patient  hopes  to  gain  power 
over  men  and  women:  in  short,  the  masculine 
protest  makes  use  of  the  feminine  role  in  order  to 
attain  its  purpose. 

That  this  device  is  likewise  dictated  by  the 
"will  to  power"  is  proved  by  the  further  neurotic 
traits  which  strive  for  mastery  and  superiority  in 
the  most  extreme  form.  This  apperception, 
however,  brings  the  sexual  j  argon  into  the  neuro- 
sis which  must  be  regarded  as  sjonbolic  and  re- 
quires interpretation. 

Side  by  side  with  or  dominating  it  is  found  in 
neurotics  the  method  of  apperception  which  ar- 


THE  FEELING  OF  INFERIORITY  83 

ranges  perception  according  to  the  spatial  antith- 
esis, above-beneath.  Also,  for  this  primitive 
attempt  at  orientation,  which  the  neurotic  empha- 
sizes very  strongly,  one  finds  analogies  in  primi- 
tive peoj^le.  However,  while  it  is  easy  to  under- 
stand that  the  masculine  principle  is  identified 
with  perfection,  we  are  forced  to  guesses  in  re- 
gard to  the  valuation  of  "above"  as  the  equal  of 
the  principle.  A  certain  probability  seems  to 
give  color  to  the  opinion  that  the  value  and  sig- 
nificance of  the  upper  part  of  the  body  in  com- 
parison with  the  feet  furnishes  the  explanation. 
Still  more  important  it  seems  to  me  that  the  val- 
uation of  the  word  above  and  its  covaluation  with 
perfection  originates  in  the  longing  of  man  to 
lift  himself,  to  fly,  to  do  that  which  is  impossible 
for  man.  The  universal  flying  dreams  and  the 
efforts  of  man  in  the  same  direction  seem  to  con- 
firm this  opinion.  That  in  the  congressus  sex- 
ualis  the  "above"  is  confluent  with  the  masculine 
principle  does  not  seem  without  significance. 

The  reenforcement  of  the  fiction  in  the  neuro- 
sis causes  a  concentration  of  the  attention  on 
those  points  of  view  regarded  by  the  neurotic  as 
important.  Therefrom  results  the  narrowing  of 
the  field  of  vision  and  the  psychic  preparation  as 
motor  and  psychic  predispositions.  Simultane- 
ously, the  more  accentuated  neurotic  character 
comes  into  force,  which  maintains  the  assurance 


3i  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  the  fiction,  comes  in  touch  with  inimical  forces 
and,  spreading  itself  out  far  over  the  boundaries 
of  personality,  into  the  realms  of  space  and  time, 
furnishes,  in  the  form  of  a  secondary  guiding 
line,  an  impetus  to  the  will  to  power.  The  neu- 
rotic attack,  finally,  like  the  strife  for  power,  has 
for  its  purpose  the  protection  of  the  ego-con- 
sciousness from  degradation. 

Therefore  from  constitutional  inferiority  there 
arises  a  feeling  of  inferiority  which  demands  a 
compensation  in  the  sense  of  a  maximation  of  the 
ego-consciousness.  From  this  circumstance  the 
fiction  which  serves  as  a  final  purpose  acquires  an 
astonishing  influence  and  draws  all  the  psychic 
forces  in  its  direction.  Itself  an  outgrowth  of 
the  striving  for  security,  it  organizes  psychic  pre- 
paratory measures  for  the  purpose  of  guarantee- 
ing security,  among  which  the  neurotic  character 
as  well  as  the  functional  neurosis  are  noticeable 
as  prominent  devices. 

The  guiding  fiction  has  a  simple,  infantile 
scheme,  and  influences  the  apperception  and  the 
mechanism  of  memory. 


CHAPTER  II 

PSYCHIC   COMPENSATION  AND  ITS  SYNTHESIS 

Our  examination  of  the  facts  has  led  us  to 
understand  how  out  of  the  absolute  inferiority  of 
the  child  (especially  the  one  constitutionally  bur- 
dened), there  is  evolved  a  kind  of  self  estimation 
which  calls  forth  a  feeling  of  inferiority. 

Analogously  to  the  86s  irov  arw  the  child  seeks  to 
gain  a  standpoint  which  will  enable  him  to  get 
a  perspective  in  the  problems  of  life.  From  this 
point  of  departure,  which  is  taken  as  a  fixed  pole 
in  the  flux  of  phenomena,  the  child  psyche  pro- 
jects its  thoughts  towards  the  goal  which  it  longs 
to  reach.  These  thoughts,  too,  are  apprehended 
as  fixed  points  by  the  abstract  conceptions  of  hu- 
man understanding  and  are  then  concretely  inter- 
preted. The  aim  to  be  great,  to  be  strong,  to  be 
a  man,  to  be  "above"  is  symbolized  in  the  person 
of  the  father,  the  mother,  the  teacher,  the  coach- 
man, the  locomotive  engineer,  etc.,  and  the  con- 
duct, the  attitude,  the  imitative  gestures,  the  play 
of  children  and  their  wishes,  the  day  dreams  and 
favorite  stories,  ideas  about  their  future  vocation 
show  us  that  the  compensatory  tendency  is  at 

35 


36  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

work  and  is  making  preparations  for  the  future 
role.  The  feehng  which  the  individual  has  of  his 
own  inferiority,  incompetency,  the  realization  of 
his  smallness,  of  his  weakness,  of  his  uncertainty, 
thus  becomes  an  appropriate  working  basis 
which,  because  of  the  intrinsically  associated  feel- 
ings of  pleasure  and  pain,  furnishes  the  inner  im- 
pulse to  advance  towards  an  imaginary  goal. 
The  scheme  of  which  the  child  avails  himself  in 
order  to  enable  him  to  act  and  orient  himself  is 
one  common  to  and  in  accordance  with  the  tend- 
ency of  the  human  understanding  to  reduce  that 
which  is  chaotic,  fluid  and  intangible  in  life  to 
measurable  entities  by  means  of  the  assumption 
of  fictions.  We  proceed  in  the  same  way  when 
we  divide  the  globe  by  means  of  meridianal  and 
parallel  lines,  for  thus  only  do  we  preserve  fixed 
points  which  we  can  place  in  relation  with  each 
other.  In  all  similar  attempts  (and  the  human 
psyche  is  full  of  them)  it  is  the  question  of  an  in- 
troduction of  an  unreal  and  abstract  scheme  into 
actual  life,  and  I  consider  the  presentation  of  this 
conception  as  I  have  gathered  it  from  the  psycho- 
logical observ^ation  of  neuroses  and  psychoses  and 
which,  according  to  the  proofs  furnished  by 
Vaihinger,  manifests  itself  in  all  scientific  con- 
cepts, to  be  the  main  object  of  this  book.  No 
matter  from  what  angle  we  observe  the  psychic 
development  of  a  normal  or  neurotic  person  he 


PSYCHIC  COMPENSATION  37 

is  always  found  ensnared  in  the  meshes  of  his 
particular  fiction;  a  fiction  from  which  the  neu- 
rotic is  unable  to  find  his  way  back  to  reality  and 
in  which  he  believes  while  the  normal  person 
utilizes  it  for  the  purpose  of  reaching  a  definite 
goal.  However,  that  which  gives  such  irresisti- 
ble impulse  to  the  utilization  of  this  scheme  is  al- 
ways the  uncertainty  in  childhood,  the  great  dis- 
tance which  separates  the  child  from  the  potency 
of  man,  from  the  distinctions  and  privileges  of 
manhood,  forebodings  and  knowledge  of  which 
the  child  possesses.  And  in  regard  to  this  point 
I  beg  leave  to  supplement  these  statements  of  the 
learned  writer,  Vaihinger,  namely,  that  the  thing 
which  impels  us  all  and  especially  the  neurotic 
and  the  child  to  abandon  the  direct  path  of  in- 
duction and  deduction  and  to  use  such  devices  as 
the  schematic  fiction  originates  in  the  feeling  of 
uncertainty  and  is  the  craving  for  security,  the 
final  purpose  of  which  is  to  escape  from  the  feel- 
ing of  inferiority  in  order  to  ascend  to  the  full 
height  of  the  ego-consciousness,  to  complete  man- 
liness, to  attain  the  ideal  of  being  "above."  The 
greater  the  distance  to  this  ideal,  the  more  dis- 
tinctly the  guiding  fiction  asserts  itself  so  that 
the  feeling  of  being  "under"  may  be  just  as  much 
a  determining  factor  as  the  deification  of  the 
father  and  mother  who  are  the  ideals  of  strength. 
We  thus  see  exertions  put  forth  far  beyond 


38  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

those  which  we  would  expect  in  the  most  violent 
bodil}^  performances  which  might  arise  from  in- 
stincts, ©r  in  the  strongest  desire  for  gratification 
of  organic  longings.  Goethe  among  others  also 
refers  to  this  fact  that  while  perception  is  con- 
nected with  the  practical  satisfaction  of  necessi- 
ties, yet  man  carries  on  a  life  beyond  this  in  feel- 
ing and  imagination.  In  this  thought  the  com- 
pulsion to  the  elevation  of  the  ego-consciousness 
is  aptly  expressed,  as  well  as  in  a  passage  oc- 
curring in  one  of  Goethe's  letters  to  Lavater  in 
which  he  saj^s,  "This  longing  to  elevate  as  high 
as  possible  the  apex  of  the  pyramid  of  my  exist- 
ence, the  base  of  which  is  placed  in  my  possession, 
outweighs  all  else  and  is  scarcely  a  moment  ab- 
sent from  thought." 

It  can  readily  be  understood  how  such  a  tense 
psychic  situation — and  every  artist,  every  genius, 
fights  the  same  battle  against  the  feeling  of  un- 
certainty; with  him,  however,  it  is  the  valuable 
cultural  medium  of  his  art — which  is  capable  of 
reenforcing  and  bringing  to  light  a  host  of  traits 
of  character  which  help  to  construct  the  neuroses. 
Thus,  first  of  all,  ambition.  This  is  the  strongest 
of  the  secondary  guiding  principles  which  strive 
towards  the  imaginary  goal.  And  it  generates 
a  number  of  psychic  predispositions  whose  pur- 
pose it  is  to  secure  to  the  neurotic  superiority  in 
all  situations  of  life,  but  which  on  the  other  hand 


PSYCHIC  COMPENSATION  89 

makes  his  aggressiveness,  his  affectivity,  appear 
to  be  in  a  state  of  constant  irritation.  Thus  the 
neurotic  individual  seems  always  to  be  proud, 
dogmatic,  envious  and  miserly,  seeks  always  to 
make  an  impression,  wishes  to  be  first,  but  always 
trembles  for  the  result  and  gladly  postpones  de- 
cisions. Hence  the  hesitating,  cautious  behavior 
of  neurotics,  their  mistrust,  vacillation  and  doubt. 
As  if  for  practice  in  the  sense  of  a  preliminary 
process  he  carries  on  these  psychic  preparations 
in  small  things  in  order  to  attain  to  fixed  points 
and  safeguarding  directing  principles  for  gi'eater 
aims  which  hold  him  under  their  chann.  This  is 
also  the  meaning  of  Freud's  displacement 
mechanism,  i.e.,  the  patient  is  impelled  by  his 
craving  for  security  to  collect  proof  experi- 
mentally, in  cor  pore  vili,  which  justifies  and  will 
continue  to  justify  his  entire  psychic  attitude. 
As  a  rule  the  result  is  always  the  thought,  'T  must 
be  cautious,  if  I  wish  to  attain  my  goal."  iVnd 
not  infrequently  the  patient  commits  audaciously 
reckless  acts  in  order  to  assure  himself  through 
an  emphasis  of  the  lesson  of  his  recklessness  the 
attainment  of  his  main  point,  namely,  the  mas- 
culine ideal.  Often  hallucinations  and  dreams 
assume  with  neurotics  and  psychotics  the  function 
of  these  warning  voices  and  depict  how  it  has  al- 
ready been  once  before,  how  it  has  been  with 
others,  or  how  the  thing  might  turn  out,  in  order 


40  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

to  hold  the  i)atient  to  the  guiding  principle  in 
which  he  finds  security. 

At  other  times  the  strongly  emphasized  traits 
of  eagerness  for  strife,  obstinacy  and  activity, 
which  are  to  "elevate"  the  apex  of  the  pyramid 
as  far  as  possible  are  strongly  accentuated  by 
pedantry  which  strives  to  keep  them  from  chang- 
ing their  direction.  That  the  eagerness  for 
knowledge,  as  a  mighty  promoter  towards  attain- 
ing the  high  goal,  is  greatly  overstrained,  is  not 
astonishing.  With  equal  distinctness  impa- 
tience, fear  of  being  too  late,  fear  of  attaining 
nothing,  manifest  themselves  as  a  particularly 
strong  impulse  to  neglect  no  means,  to  do  rather 
too  much  than  not  enough  towards  the  attain- 
ment of  the  goal.  These  traits  always  lie  within 
the  field  of  the  developed  neurosis,  where  the 
feeling  of  "craving  for  security"  obtrudes  itself 
more  and  drives  to  the  dangerous  expedients  by 
means  of  which  the  feeling  of  inferiority  is  ren- 
dered more  profound,  and  the  patient  acts  as  if 
he  were  restrained,  cut  off  from  success  and  with- 
out hope,  or  he  plunges  to  a  greater  or  less  degree 
into  passivity,  displays  eff^eminate  traits,  con- 
ducts himself  in  a  masochistic  or  perverse  manner 
and  finally  greatly  reduces  his  sphere  of  activity 
so  that  it  is  more  shaken  and  more  strongly  dom- 
inated by  the  symptoms  of  the  disease.  In  a 
similar  manner  arises  the  arrangement  of  indo- 


PSYCHIC  COMPENSATION  41 

lence,  laziness,  fatigue,  impotence  of  every  sort 
which  furnish  a  pretext  to  escape  from  decisions 
which  could  affect  the  pride  of  the  neurotic,  an 
excuse  for  withdrawing  from  study,  from  a  voca- 
tion, from  marriage.  At  times  this  develop- 
mental phase  terminates  in  suicide  which  is  then 
always  felt  as  a  successful  revenge  on  fate  or  on 
his  relatives. 

Consciousness  of  guilt  also  asserts  itself. 
Here  we  find  one  of  the  most  difficult  points  in 
the  analysis  of  neuroses  and  psj^choses.  Con- 
sciousness of  guilt  and  conscience  are  fictitious 
guiding  principles  of  caution,  like  religiosity  and 
subserve  the  craving  for  secm-ity.^  Their  object 
is  to  prevent  a  lowering  of  the  ego-consciousness 
when  the  irritated  aggressiveness  impels  immod- 
erately to  selfish  deeds.  In  the  consciousness  of 
guilt  the  glance  is  directed  backwards,  conscience 
operates  through  foresight.  The  love  of  truth, 
too,  is  sustained  by  the  craving  for  security  and 
belongs  really  within  the  sphere  of  our  personal 
ideal,  while  the  neurotic  lie  represents  a  feeble 
attempt  to  preserve  appearances  and  to  effect 
compensation. 

All  these  attempts  towards  elevation,  efforts 
of  the  "will  to  power,"  must  naturally  be  under- 
stood as  a  form  of  the  striving  towards  masculin- 

1  See    Fortmuller,   "Psychoanalysis    and   Ethics,"   Miinchen,    E. 
Reinhardt,  191;?. 


42  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ity  and  become  identified  with  the  masculine  pro- 
test, because  this  represents  a  fundamental  form 
of  the  psychical  impulse  to  become  of  value,  in 
accordance  with  which  all  experiences,  percep- 
tions and  directions  of  will  are  grouped.  Apper- 
ception is  guided  in  accordance  with  this  most 
significant  scheme,  namely,  the  goal,  especially  in 
neurotics,  is  the  erection  of  the  masculine  protest 
against  an  effeminate  self-estimation.  Thus  are 
guided  also  attention,  foresight,  doubt,  as  well  as 
all  traits  of  character  and  other  psychic  and  phys- 
ical inclinations,  but  in  the  highest  degree  and 
above  all  the  evaluation  of  all  experiences  in  line 
with  this  masculine  goal,  so  that  all  these  phe- 
nomena contain  a  dynamic  which  is  betrayed  to 
the  experienced,  and  which  tends  from  that  which 
is  below  to  that  which  is  above,  from  that  which 
is  feminine  to  that  which  is  masculine.  The  crea- 
tion of  all  these  lines  of  force,  the  fixation  of  this 
remote  goal,  the  emphasis  and  occasional  protec- 
tion of  inferior  effeminate  traits  for  the  purpose 
of  combating  them  more  forcibly  by  the  mascu- 
line protest  takes  place  by  means  of  the  same  fac- 
tor which  also  created  the  organic  compensation, 
i.e.,  the  tendency  towards  adjustment  by  con- 
stant attempt  to  supplant  an  injurious,  inferior 
performance  by  an  increase  of  effort  and  which  in 
the  psychic  sphere  finds  expression  in  the  craving 
for  security  which  takes  as  a  guiding  line  (direc- 


PSYCHIC  COMPENSATION  43 

trix)  the  will  to  power,  to  be  manty,  in  order  to 
escape  the  feeling  of  uncertainty. 

The  gi'eatest  difficulty  which  stands  in  the  way 
of  an  understanding  of  the  neurosis  arises  from 
the  striking  protection  afforded  these  inferior, 
effeminate  traits  and  their  acknowledgment  by 
the  patients.  Here  belong  all  the  phenomena  of 
the  disease  generally,  but  also  the  passive,  maso- 
chistic traits,  the  effeminate  characteristics,  the 
passive  homosexuality,  impotence,  suggestibility, 
accessibility  to  and  inclination  for  hypnosis,  or, 
finally,  the  apparent  surrender  to  effeminacy  and 
to  effeminate  behavior.  The  final  object,  how- 
ever, always  remains  the  same,  the  domination 
over  others  which  is  felt  and  appreciated  as  a 
masculine  triumph.  Neither  are  the  above  de- 
scribed compensatory  features  ever  absent  in  the 
makeup  of  these  patients,  as  they  might  be  ex- 
pected to  be  in  individuals  who  assume  as  a 
ground  for  action  a  feeling  of  inadequacy  and 
who  then  strive  to  secure  by  every  possible  means 
a  substitute  for  their  shortcomings,  to  supply  that 
which  they  feel  to  be  lacking  in  their  exaggerated 
ego-consciousness.  And  also  in  the  psychic  situ- 
ation the  sexual  element  as  a  symbol  asserts  itself, 
inasmuch  as  such  patients  frequently  form  their 
apperceptions  in  accordance  with  a  scheme  in 
which  their  genital  organs  are  regarded  as  if  they 
were  effeminized,  restricted,  castrated,  and  as  if 


44  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

they  were  therefore  constantly  forced  to  seek  a 
substitute.  One  form  of  this  substitution  they 
find  in  the  depreciation  and  emasculation  of  all 
other  persons.  From  this  tendency  to  deprive 
others  of  worth  originates  the  considerable  reen- 
forcement  of  certain  traits  of  character,  which  set 
forth  further  inclinations  and  which  have  the 
quality  of  injuring  others,  as  sadism,  hate,  con- 
tentiousness, intolerance,  env}%  etc.  Active  ho- 
mosexuality, also,  as  well  as  perversions  which  de- 
grade the  partner,  also  Lustmord,  arise  from  the 
neurotic  tendency  to  depreciate,  a  tendency  which 
can  hardly  be  pictured  too  strongly.  They  all 
represent  a  rationalization  of  the  symbolism  of 
subjection  in  line  with  the  concept  which  asserts 
the  "sexual  dominance  of  the  male."  In  short, 
the  neurotic  may  also  elevate  the  feeling  of  his 
own  worth  by  degrading  others. 

We  have  mentioned  above  the  protection  of 
the  effeminate  traits  in  the  neurosis  for  the  pur- 
pose of  better  carrying  on  the  combat,  for  the 
purpose  of  a  better  surveillance  over  self.  These 
accentuations  along  with  the  distinct  tendency  to 
give  preference  to  the  will  to  masculinity  create 
the  appearance  of  a  rent  in  the  psyche  of  the  neu- 
rotic which  is  familiar  to  writers  as  double  per- 
sonality, dissociation,  and  which  is  frequently 
seen  in  the  changing  humors  of  neurotics,  but  also 


PSYCHIC  COMPENSATION  45 

in  the  succession  of  depression  and  mania,  of 
ideas  of  persecution  and  grandeur  in  the  psy- 
choses. I  have  always  found  as  an  internal  con- 
necting bond  in  these  antithetical  conditions 
the  tendency  to  maximate  the  ego-consciousness, 
whereby  the  "inferior"  situation  is  associated 
with  a  degradation,  but  is  circumscribed  and  ar- 
ranged as  a  groimd  for  operation.  It  is  then 
that  the  masculine  protest  asserts  itself,  which  is 
often  carried  to  the  length  of  asserting  a  resem- 
blance to  God  or  an  intimate  connection  with 
Him.  For  the  "splitting  of  consciousness"  the 
severely  schematic  and  very  abstract  process  of 
apperception  is  also  responsible,  a  form  of  apper- 
ception which  groups  the  internal  and  external 
experiences  according  to  a  scheme  which  has  the 
form  of  an  absolute  antithesis,  sometliing  like  the 
debits  and  credits  in  book-keeping,  where  there 
are  no  transitions  possible.  This  fault  of  the 
neurotic  mode  of  thinking,  which  is  identical  with 
a  too  far-fetched  abstraction,  is  likewise  caused 
by  his  craving  for  security,  a  tendency  which  re- 
quires for  the  purpose  of  making  decisions,  for 
anticipations  and  actions,  sharply  defined  guiding 
lines,  idols,  false  deities  in  which  the  neurotic  be- 
lieves. In  this  way  he  becomes  estranged  from 
concrete  reality.  For  to  find  one's  bearings  in 
the  world  of  reality  an  elasticity  of  the  psyche 


46  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

and  not  a  rigidity  is  required,  a  utilization  of  ab- 
straction, but  not  an  adoration,  an  idolizing  of 
the  same  as  the  final  purpose  of  existence. 

Accordingly  we  shall  find  in  the  mental  life  of 
the  neurotic,  just  as  is  the  case  in  primitive 
poetry,  in  mythology,  in  legends,  in  cosmogony, 
in  theogony  and  in  the  beginnings  of  philosophy 
a  most  pronounced  tendency  to  give  a  symbolic 
style  to  himself,  his  experiences  and  to  persons 
about  him.  Thus  naturally  the  phenomena 
which  do  not  belong  together  must  be  sharply 
separated  from  each  other  by  an  abstracting  fic- 
tion. The  impulse  to  this  expedient  arises  from 
the  longing  for  an  orientation  and  has  its  roots 
in  the  neurotic's  craving  for  security.  This  im- 
pulse is  often  so  intense  that  it  demands  the  split- 
ting of  unity,  of  the  category,  of  the  unity  of  the 
ego  into  two  or  more  of  its  antithetical  parts. 

From  the  above  described  self -estimation  of 
the  child,  who  is  induced  by  inferiority  of  consti- 
tution and  the  evils  arising  therefrom  to  strive 
after  special  securities,  up  to  the  complete  devel- 
opment of  the  neurotic  technique  of  thinking  and 
its  coadjuvant  lines,  of  the  neurotic  character, 
a  host  of  psychic  phenomena  make  their  appear- 
ance which  according  to  Karl  Groos  ^  may  be  re- 
garded as  a  training,  according  to  our  interpreta- 

2  See   Karl  Groos,   "Die  Spiele  der  Menschen,  Die  Spiele  der 
Thiere." 


PSYCHIC  COMPENSATION  47 

tion  as  a  preparation  for  the  imaginary  goal. 
They  are  manifested  at  an  early  age,  are  indicated 
even  in  early  infancy  and  are  constantly  at  the 
foundation  of  the  influences  of  conscious  and  un- 
conscious education.  The  whole  development  of 
the  child  shows  that  it  proceeds  in  the  direction  of 
an  idea,  which  naturally  takes  a  primitive  form 
and  quite  regularly  seeks  concrete  embodiment  in 
the  form  of  a  person.  Under  this  compulsion, 
the  psychic  mechanism  of  which  is  for  the  most 
part  unconscious  and  only  partly  conscious,  the 
psyche  in  the  process  of  formation  comes  to  more 
distinct  expression,  and  the  mental  as  well  as  the 
physical  life  of  a  human  being  taken  at  any  given 
point  of  its  development  is  to  be  understood  as 
the  answer  which  that  individual  gives  to  the 
question  of  life. 

This  answer,  in  reality  the  manner  in  which 
life  is  accepted,  is  according  to  all  the  knowledge 
thereof  furnished  by  experience,  to  be  considered 
as  identical  with  the  effort  to  put  an  end  to  un- 
certainty, to  the  chaos  which  prevails  in  impres- 
sions and  feelings,  with  the  effort  to  obtain  a  firm 
hold  in  order  to  overcome  the  difficulties  of  life. 
Reflection,  observation,  thought  and  forethought, 
attention,  calculation  and  valuation  are  all  efforts 
put  forth  by  this  craving  for  security.  And  in- 
asmuch as  the  realization  of  one's  own  inferiority 
is  taken  as  an  abstract  standard  for  inequality 


48  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

among  human  beings,  the  greater,  the  stronger 
and  his  measure  are  taken  for  the  fictitious  goal 
so  that  it  may  be  a  guarantee  against  this  uncer- 
tainty and  fright.  Thus  it  is  that  the  soul  of  the 
child  constructs  a  guiding  line  which  impels  to- 
wards an  elevation  of  the  ego-consciousness  in 
order  to  escape  from  uncertainty,  the  influence  of 
which  is  still  stronger  in  neurotics  who  have  felt 
their  inferiority  more  keenly.  INIythographers, 
the  human  race,  poets,  philosophers,  founders  of 
religions  have  taken  the  material  from  their  con- 
temporaneous periods  for  the  transformation  of 
the  guiding  lines  so  that  immortality,  virtue, 
piety,  riches,  knowledge,  social  consciousness  of 
the  upper  classes  or  self-perfection  were  available 
as  goals  and  were  utilized  according  to  the  recep- 
tive peculiarities  of  the  individual  who  longed  for 
perfection.  At  this  point  the  living  energies  of 
the  child  become  transferred  into  the  self-created 
sphere  of  his  subjective  world  which  henceforth 
as  a  guiding  fiction  transmutes,  falsifies  and 
changes  the  values  of  all  feelings  and  emotions, 
pleasures  and  pains,  even  the  struggle  for  self- 
preservation,  for  his  benefit,  in  order  to  attain  the 
goal;  a  transformation  which  utilizes  all  the  ex- 
periences of  the  neurotic  in  such  a  way  as  to  bring 
about  preparations  which  will  ensure  the  triumph. 
These  preparatory  acts  with  their  tendency  to 
change  values  may  be  most  clearly  observed  in 


PSYCHIC  COMPENSATION  49 

the  play  of  nervous  children,  in  their  delibera- 
tions over  the  choice  of  a  future  vocation  and 
their  physical  and  psychical  attitudes.  These 
phenomena  will  be  further  discussed  in  connec- 
tion with  the  dominating  craving  for  security 
which  controls  them.  Concerning  the  nervous 
habitus  it  may  be  stated  that  as  a  rule  it  is  notice- 
able at  an  early  age,  that  it  takes  the  form  of  a 
pantomimic  representation  of  some  trait  of  char- 
acter, either  as  an  anxious,  waiting,  distrustful, 
uncertain,  cautious,  bashful  attitude  or  as  a  hos- 
tile, obstinate,  self-certain,  self-complacent,  for- 
ward attitude.  Blushing  is  noticeable  or  the 
glance  is  peculiarly  fixed,  cast  down  or  hostile. 
It  is  easy  to  correlafe  one  of  these  attitudes  or 
gestures,  or  a  mimic  trait,  with  the  prototype.  In 
nervous  children  imitation  of  the  male  principle, 
the  father,  is  often  found;  the  mother  only  be- 
comes a  model  for  imitation  after  a  formal  change 
in  the  guiding  principle  has  taken  place,  or  when 
from  the  beginning  the  moral  superiority  of  the 
mother  is  beyond  question.  Usually  these  phe- 
nomena are  insignificant  and  such  as  are  not  as 
a  rule  subjected  to  the  observation  of  the  phy- 
sician. Crossing  the  legs,  the  arms,  a  peculiar 
manner  of  gait,  preference  for  certain  foods,  bor- 
rowing of  certain  traits  of  character,  etc.,  or  in 
the  presence  of  more  strongly  emphasized  ob- 
stinacy opposite  forms  of  expression.     The  re- 


50  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

tained  bad  habits  of  childhood,  such  as  eneuresis, 
biting  the  nails,  sucking,  stuttering,  winking  the 
eyes,  masturbation,  etc.,  can  always  be  traced  to 
these  beginnings  of  obstinacy.  They  are  the  ex- 
pedients of  the  weak  to  diminish  the  pathos  of 
the  distance  and  thereby  do  away  with  the  feel- 
ing of  inferiority,  and  strive  in  the  last  analysis  to 
a  transformation  of  authority  and  at  the  same 
time  to  gain  an  excuse  for  avoiding  a  decision, 
for  postponing  it. 

All  considerable  phenomena  of  this  sort  are 
themselves  neurotic  traits  of  character  or  show 
that  they  are  permeated  by  the  neurotic  charac- 
ter and  like  it  itself  are  a  form  of  expression  of 
the  craving  for  security,  preparatory  processes 
and  preliminary  provisions  of  the  compensatory 
force  which  is  produced  by  the  feeling  of  inferi- 
ority. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  AS  THE  GUIDING  IDEA 

IN  THE  NEUROSIS 

The  most  important  task  of  thinking  is  to  an- 
ticipate actions  or  events;  to  seize  upon  an  objec- 
tive and  ways  and  means  and  to  influence  them 
as  far  as  possible.  By  means  of  this  process  of 
forethought,  our  influence  over  space  and  time 
is  assured  to  a  certain  degree.  Accordingly  our 
psyche  is  first  of  all  an  organ  of  aggression  born 
out  of  the  distress  of  the  all  too  restricted  limi- 
tation which  from  the  first  renders  difficult  the 
gratification  of  natural  appetites.  This  organ- 
ically determined  goal  of  gratification  of  appe- 
tites will  only  endure  so  long  as  the  suitable  means 
are  at  hand  for  its  stabilization ;  for  rendering  it 
secure  against  the  strongest  attacks.  Toward 
the  end  of  the  nursing  period,  when  the  child  ac- 
quires abihty  to  carry  out  independent,  purpose- 
ful actions  which  are  not  merely  directed  toward 
the  gratification  of  aippetite,  when  he  takes  his 
place  in  the  family  and  begins  to  adapt  himself 
to  his  environment,  he  already  possesses  abilities, 
psychic  gestures  and  preparations.     Besides  this 

51 


52  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

his  conduct  has  acquired  a  certain  uniformity  and 
is  seen  to  be  on  the  road  toward  acquiring  his 
place  in  the  world.     Such  a  uniformity  of  con- 
duct can  only  be  comprehended  by  the  assump- 
tion that  the  child  has  discovered  some  specific 
fixed  point  outside  of  his  own  personality  towards 
which  he  strives  with  his  developmental  energies. 
The  child  must,  therefore,  have  constructed  for 
himself  a  guiding  principle,  a  guiding  model,  ob- 
viously in  the  hope  of  thus  orienting  himself 
in  the  best  possible  manner  in  his  environment  and 
of  obtaining  gratification  of  his  necessities  of 
avoiding  pain  and  of  obtaining  pleasure.^     From 
this  guiding  ideal  arises  the  very  beginning  of  the 
child's  craving  for  tenderness,  that  quality  which 
(Paulsen)  originally  determines  the  tractability 
of  the  child.     Soon  there  become  associated  with 
this  first  quality,  efforts  to  gain  the  praise,  help 
and  love  of  the  parents,  stirrings  of  independ- 
ence, of  obstinacy  and  of  opposition.     The  child 
has  found  a  meaning  in  hfe  towards  which  he 
strives  and  whose  still  indistinct  outlines  he  is 
forming,  and  starting  from  which  he  derives  that 
quality  of  prevision  which  is  calculated  to  direct 
and  give  worth  to  his  actions  and  impulses.     It  is 
the  child's  helplessness,  clumsiness  and  uncer- 
tainty which  necessitates  the  establishment  of  the 
tentative  tests  of  possibility,  the  acquisition  of 

1  Adler,  "Trotz  und  Gehorsamkeit." 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  53 

experience,  the  creation  of  memories  for  the  pur- 
pose of  constructing  a  bridge  leading  to  that  fu- 
ture where  there  are  to-be  found  greatness,  power 
and  satisfaction  of  all  sorts.  The  construction  of 
this  bridge  is  the  most  important  work  the  child  is 
called  upon  to  perform  because  without  it  he 
would  find  himself  in  the  midst  of  the  inpouring 
impressions  without  order,  without  counsel,  with- 
out guide.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  define  the 
limits  of  this  first  stadium,  of  this  awakening  sub- 
jective world,  to  describe  it  in  words.  But  it 
may,  however,  be  said  that  the  guiding  model  of 
the  child  must  be  so  constructed  as  if  it  were  able 
to  bring  to  the  child  gi-eater  certainty  and  orien- 
tation by  influencing  the  direction  of  his  will. 

But  he  can  only  obtain  security  by  striving  to- 
wards a  fixed  point  where  he  sees  himself  greater 
and  stronger,  where  he  finds  himself  rid  of  the 
helplessness  of  infancy.  The  symbohc  and  logi- 
cal nature  of  our  process  of  thinking  permits  the 
construction  of  this  future  changed  personality 
in  the  image  of  the  father,  the  mother,  of  an  elder 
brother  or  sister,  or  teacher  or  some  professional 
man,  or  hero,  or  animal,  or  God.  The  qualities 
of  greatness,  power,  knowledge  and  ability  are 
features  common  to  all  these  guiding  images  and 
thus  they  are  one  and  all  symbols  for  imaginative 
abstractions.  And  thus  like  idols  made  of  clay 
they  receive  from  the  imagination  of  man,  force 


54>  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

and  life  and  react  upon  the  psyche  which  has  cre- 
ated them. 

This  artifice  of  thinking  would  have  the  stamp 
of  paranoia  and  of  dementia  precox  conditions, 
which  create  for  themselves  hostile  forces  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  ego-consciousness,  were  not 
the  child  able  at  all  times  to  free  himself  from  the 
bonds  of  his  fiction,  to  ehminate  his  projections 
(Kant)  from  his  calculations,  and  to  make  use 
only  of  the  impetus  which  is  given  him  by  this 
guiding  line.  His  uncertainty  is  sufficient  to 
make  him  set  up  a  fantastic  goal  for  the  purpose 
of  orientation  in  the  world,  but  it  is  not  so  great 
as  to  make  him  deprive  reality  of  its  value  and  to 
assert  dogmatically  the  reality  of  this  guiding 
model,  as  is  the  case  in  the  psychoses.  One  must, 
however,  call  attention  to  the  similarity,  the  sig- 
nificance of  this  uncertainty  and  the  device  of  a 
fiction  in  normal  persons,  neurotics  and  the  in- 
sane. 

The  part  of  this  process  which  is  common  to  all 
humanity,  normal  and  abnormal,  is  that  the  ap- 
perceiving  memory  is  under  the  sway  of  the  guid- 
ing fiction.  It  is  because  of  this  that  there  exists 
within  certain  limits  in  all  mankind  a  uniformity 
concerning  a  cosmic  conception.  The  child  in  its 
insignificance  and  helplessness  will  constantly 
strive  to  enlarge  his  field  of  power  and  will  mark 
this  field  off  after  the  pattern  of  that  which  seems 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  55 

to  possess  the  greatest  strength.  And  now  it 
becomes  evident  in  the  course  of  psychic  develop- 
ment that  that  which  was  at  first  only  an  imagi- 
nary expedient,  important  only  in  its  relations, 
only  a  means  for  gaining  ground  to  stand  upon, 
for  finding  one's  bearings,  for  gaining  a  foothold, 
has  become  a  goal  in  itself,  obviously  because  the 
child  can  only  in  this  way  obtain  self-assurance 
in  acting  and  not  directly  through  the  gratifica- 
tion of  desires.^ 

Thus  the  effective  point  is  found  outside  the 
corporeal  sphere  according  to  which  the  psyche 
adjusts  itself,  a  point  which  forms  the  center  of 
gravity  of  human  thought,  feeling  and  volition. 
And  the  mechanism  of  apperceiving  memory 
with  its  host  of  experiences,  transforms  itself 
from  an  objectively  operating  system  into  a  sub- 
jectively active,  fictitiously  modified  scheme  of 
an  imagined  future  personality.  It  becomes  the 
task  of  this  scheme  to  bring  about  such  connec- 
tions with  the  outside  world  as  will  serve  to  maxi- 
mate  his  feeling  of  ego-consciousness,  such  asso- 
ciations as  will  hint  at  the  preparing  activities 
and  thought  indicators  and  bring  these  in  contact 
with  the  already  existing  state  of  preparedness. 
One  is  here  reminded  of  the  apt  expression  of 

2  As  may  be  seen  from  Karl  Groos'  "Play  of  Animals"  the 
understanding  of  the  animal  psyche  is  likewise  based  upon  the  fact 
that  we  see  it  act  as  though  it  were  following  the  direction  of  a 
fictitious  guiding  line. 


56  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Charcot  who  has  emphasized  for  science  that  "one 
only  discovers  that  which  one  knows,"  an  obser- 
vation which  when  directed  to  practical  experi- 
ence tends  to  show  that  our  whole  sphere  of  per- 
ception is  limited  by  a  nmnber  of  predetermined 
psychical  mechanisms  and  predispositions  as 
Kant's  theory  ^  of  "a  priori"  forms  of  perception 
teaches  us.  In  a  similar  manner  our  actions  are 
determined  by  the  content  of  experiences,  which 
are  given  birth  to  and  are  determined  by  the  guid- 
ing fiction.  Even  our  judgments  concerning  the 
value  of  things  are  determined  according  to  the 
standard  of  the  imaginary  goal,  not  according  to 
"real"  feelings  or  pleasurable  sensations. 

And  conduct  follows  as  James  expresses  it  in 
consequence  of  a  sort  of  approbation — depends 
as  it  were  on  a  fiat,  command  or  acquiescence. 
The  guiding  fiction  is  therefore  first  of  all  the 
expedient,  the  device  by  means  of  which  the  child 
seeks  to  free  himself  from  his  feeling  of  infe- 
riority. It  initiates  compensation  and  stands  at 
the  service  of  the  craving  for  security.  The 
greater  the  feeling  of  inferiority,  the  more  im- 
perative and  stronger  will  be  the  necessity  for  a 
steadying,  guiding  principle  and  indeed  the  more 
distinctly  it  manifests  itself,  and  like  compensa- 

3  I  have  to  call  attention  here  to  Bergson's  fundamental  teach- 
ings, without  being  able  to  give  room  here  for  his  important  view- 
points. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  57 

tion  in  the  organic  sphere,  the  effectiveness  of 
psychic  compensation  is  linked  with  a  functional 
increase  and  brings  about  novel  and  many-sided 
manifestations  in  the  mental  life.  One  of  the 
forms  of  expression  of  this  compensator}^  mech- 
anism, intended  to  assure  the  sense  of  ego-con- 
sciousness is  exemphfied  by  the  neurosis  and 
psychosis. 

The  constitutionally  inferior  child  with  his  host 
of  disadvantages  and  uncertainties  will  construct 
his  goal  in  a  more  definite  and  clearer  manner, 
will  outline  more  distinctly  the  guiding  principle 
and  will  adhere  to  it  more  anxiously  or  dogmati- 
cally. In  fact  the  principal  impression  which  one 
gains  from  the  observation  of  a  neurotically  dis- 
posed child  is  usually  that  the  child  is  guided  in 
the  choice  of  a  weapon  by  his  somatic  inferiority 
which  he  utilizes  in  his  dealings  with  his  relatives 
or  which  he  emphasizes  in  his  obstinacy. 

Often  his  illness  is  borrowed  from  his  environ- 
ment either  by  simulation  or  exaggeration  of  ac- 
tual ailments,  all  this  in  order  to  strengthen  his 
position.  Should  such  means  not  have  the  de- 
sired effect  upon  his  environment,  the  child  en- 
deavors to  rid  himself  of  his  complaints  through 
the  exercise  of  superior  efforts,  as  result  of  which 
there  develop  not  infrequently  qualified  and  artis- 
tic performances  in  the  event  of  the  experiencing 
of   an  over-compensation  on  the   part   of  the 


58  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

functional  anomalies  of  the  eye,  ear,  speech  or 
musculatiii-e.  Associated  with  this  are  also  stir- 
rings of  independence.  Or  the  remedy  is  sought, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  a  greater  dependence,  for 
the  attainment  of  which,  anxiety,  a  feeling  of  in- 
significance, weakness,  awkwardness,  incapacity, 
sense  of  guilt  and  remorse  serve  as  strongholds. 
The  same  tendency  may  be  seen  in  the  adherence 
to  the  bad  habits  of  childhood,  in  the  retention  of 
a  psychic  infantilism  in  so  far  as  this  is  not  ex- 
clusively or  partially  the  result  of  obstinacy,  of 
the  infantile  negativism. 

A  number  of  the  complaints  of  psychopathic 
children  are  of  a  subjective  nature,  and  corre- 
spond to  a  comj^lete  or  partial  error  of  judgment 
as  it  takes  place  in  the  effort  of  children  to  find  a 
reason  for  their  feeling  of  inferiority  and  to  com- 
prehend  it.  Frequently  these  logical  interpreta- 
tions are  already  intermixed  with  the  compensat- 
ing ambition  or  with  the  child's  aggressiveness 
towards  its  parents.  *'The  fault  lies  with  my 
parents,  with  my  lot,  because  I'm  the  youngest, 
because  I  was  born  too  late,  because  I  am  a  Cin- 
derella, because  I'm  perhaps  not  the  child  of  these 
parents,  of  this  father,  of  this  mother,  because  I 
am  too  small,  too  weak,  have  too  small  a  head,  am 
too  homely,  because  I  have  an  impediment  of 
speech,  a  defect  of  hearing,  am  cross-eyed,  near- 
sighted, because  I  have  imperfect  genitals,  be- 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  59 

cause  I'm  not  manly,  because  I  am  a  girl,  because 
I'm  bad  by  nature,  dull  and  awkward,  because  I 
have  masturbated,  because  I'm  too  sensuous,  too 
covetous  and  naturally  perverted,  because  I  sub- 
mit easily,  am  too  dependent  and  obey,  because  I 
cry  easily,  am  easily  affected,  because  I  am  a 
criminal,  a  thief,  an  incendiary,  and  could  murder 
some  one.  My  ancestry,  my  education,  circum- 
cision are  to  blame,  because  I  have  too  long  a  nose, 
too  much  hair,  too  little  hair,  because  I  am  a 
cripple."  Thus  and  similarly  sound  the  child's 
attempts  to  unburden  himself  by  blaming  fate 
just  as  in  the  Greek  fate  tragedies,  these  are  at- 
tempts to  preserve  the  ego-consciousness  and  hold 
others  responsible  for  his  inferiority.  These  at- 
tempts are  regularly  met  with  in  the  psychic 
treatment  of  the  neuroses  and  they  can  always  be 
referred  back  to  the  relationship  between  an  ex- 
isting feeling  of  inferiority  and  an  assumed  ideal. 
The  significance  and  value  of  these  thought 
processes  which  are  as  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the 
neurotic  are  noted  also  in  the  uses  to  which  they 
are  put  by  himself,  first  for  the  stimulation  of  his 
efforts  in  the  direction  of  his  ideal  (grandiose 
ideas)  and  second,  the  utilization  of  them  as  a 
refuge  and  excuse  when  forced  to  a  decision  which 
threatens  a  lowering  of  the  ego-consciousness 
(depreciatory  ideas).  The  second  applicability 
and   appHcation   naturally    occupies   the    fore- 


60  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

gi'ound  in  the  neuroses  because  the  goal  toward 
which  the  neurotic  strives  is  set  too  high  to  be 
reached  in  a  direct  hne.  The  utiHzation  of  this 
ideal  is  only  rendered  possible  by  an  admixture 
of  aggression  or  in  blaming  fate  as  well  as  hered- 
ity. By  means  of  this  the  neurotic  gains  a  per- 
manent base  of  operation  on  the  strength  of  which 
he  unfolds,  thrusts  forward  and  stabilizes  certain 
traits  of  character  which  serve  the  same  hostile 
purpose,  such  as  obstinacy,  a  dominating,  grum- 
bling nature,  pedantry,  because  thereby  he  al- 
ways succeeds  in  gaining  mastery  over  his  en- 
vironment principally  by  calling  attention  to  his 
terrible  suffering.  All  of  these  traits  and  predis- 
positions associated  with  bad  habits  retained  from 
childhood  which  have  become  markedly  exagger- 
ated, as  well  as  with  disease  symptoms  of  a  self- 
created  and  self-modeled  nature  stand  in  the 
closest  interrelation,  are  inseparable  one  from  an- 
other and  show  their  dependence  on  a  factor  out- 
side their  own  sphere,  i.  e.,  they  depend  upon  the 
guiding  fiction  which  has  evolved  from  the  crav- 
ing for  security  or  from  the  longing  for  the 
maximation  of  the  ego-consciousness.  In  the 
imaginary  basis  of  this  feeling  of  inferiority  which 
because  of  the  craving  for  security  is  always 
thought  of  in  an  exaggerated  manner  and  felt  too 
keenly,  I  see  the  chief  therapeutic  hope.  The 
question  whether  the  feeling  of  uncertainty  is 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  61 

conscious  or  unconscious  is  of  secondary  impor- 
tance. At  times  pride  carries  things  so  far  that 
"memory  gives  way"  (Nietzsche).  Naturally 
the  above  described  connection  is  not  realized  by 
the  patient.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  he  remains 
the  plaything  of  his  emotions  and  affects  until 
such  time  as  the  mechanism  becomes  revealed  to 
him  and  set  to  rights,  until  such  time  as  the  pre- 
dispositions and  neurotic  plan  of  life  are  shat- 
tered ;  a  plaything  of  emotions  and  affects  the  in- 
teraction of  vi^hich  becomes  further  complicated 
because  of  a  constant  admixture  of  traits  of  char- 
acter intended  to  negate  his  sense  of  inferiority, 
such  as  pride,  envy,  greed,  cruelty,  courage,  re- 
vengefulness,  irritability,  etc.,  traits  of  character 
which  are  constantly  being  excited  through  his 
craving  for  security. 

The  tendency  to  exaggerate  and  emphasize 
existing  defects  plays  an  important  role  in  the 
psychology  of  the  neuroses.  An  appearance  of 
weakness,  suffering,  incapacity  and  uselessness 
results  from  this  manner  of  presenting  actual  de- 
fects because  the  neurotic  is  compelled  by  the 
mechanism  which  controls  him  to  conduct  himself 
unwaveringly  in  such  a  manner  as  to  feel  as 
though  he  were  sick,  as  though  he  were  effeminate, 
inferior,  neglected,  injured,  sexually  over-ex- 
cited, impotent  or  perverted.  The  cautious  ap- 
proach to  problems  of  life  which  constantly  ac- 


62  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

companies  these  impulses,  the  exaggerated  striv- 
ing upwards,  the  desire  to  play  the  role  of  man  in 
some  way  or  other,  to  be  superior  to  everybody 
else,  the  neurotic's  stronghold  with  its  prime  ob- 
ject of  avoiding  decisions  and  setbacks  and  thus 
to  escape  a  lowering  of  his  ego-consciousness,  all 
of  this  reveals  to  us  the  true  state  of  affairs, 
namely,  that  the  low  self-estimation  of  the  neu- 
rotic is  in  itself  an  expedient  by  means  of  which 
he  strives  the  more  powerfully  to  attain  that 
guiding  goal  which  will  bring  about  a  maxima- 
tion  of  his  ego-consciousness.  He  may  conduct 
himself  according  to  the  motto  "half  and  half," 
he  may  cede  certain  strongholds  in  the  contest 
but  he  does  so  solely  in  order  to  fortify  hhnself 
against  an  ultimate  feeling  of  inferiority  and  in 
order  to  be  the  better  able  to  utilize  others  in  his 
service. 

The  sexual  feature  of  the  psychology  of  the 
neuroses  which  Freud  looks  upon  as  a  cardinal 
point  is  in  this  wise  explained  as  the  effect  of  a 
fiction.  There  is  no  objective  standard  of  the 
"libido."  The  exaltation  and  diminution  of  the 
same  is  always  in  accord  with  the  imaginary  goal. 
It  is  easy  for  the  neurotic  to  convince  himself  that 
he  is  the  subject  of  a  high  sexual  tension  by  means 
of  a  more  or  less  purposeful  arrangement,  and 
especially  by  means  of  a  concentration  of  the  at- 
tention in  this  direction  the  moment  he  begins  to 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  63 

seek  proof  of  how  much  injury  sexuahty  works 
to  his  feehng  of  security  and  how  much  his  ego- 
consciousness  is  threatened  from  this  source. 
The  weakening  of  hbidinous  impulses  even  to  the 
point  of  psychic  impotence  is  to  be  regarded  as 
purposeful  checks  on  aggression,  as  disorders  of 
natural  predispositions,  as  a  construction  of  an 
"as  if"  for  the  purpose  of  assuring  himself  against 
marriage,  against  a  swerving  from  the  goal, 
against  a  degradation  at  the  hands  of  the  sexual 
partner,  against  poverty  or  culpability.  Re- 
pressed or  conscious  perverse  tendencies,  as  well 
as  the  compulsion  to  masturbation  are  always 
looked  upon  as  detours,  as  symbols  of  an  imagin- 
ary plan  of  life  whose  purpose  is  self-assurance. 
They  are  called  into  being  by  the  guiding  fiction 
as  soon  as  the  feeling  of  inferiority  finds  expres- 
sion in  the  fear  of  the  sexual  partner  as  happens 
regularly  where  there  exist  sexual  anomalies.  The 
fiction  may  then  also  repress  the  incentive  to  per- 
version into  the  subconscious  or  make  the  fear  of 
the  partner  unrecognizable  to  consciousness  so 
that  it  only  becomes  apparent  from  a  survey  of 
the  whole  situation.  It  resorts  to  the  first  alter- 
native when  it  depends  on  pride  for  the  fulfillment 
of  its  purpose,  to  the  latter  when  it  makes  a  virtue 
of  the  defect  and  seeks  the  degi*adation  of  the 
partner.  Incestuous  tendencies  too,  to  which 
Freud  ascribes  such  an  important  role  in  the  pro- 


64  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

duction  of  neuroses  and  psychoses  reveal  them- 
selves in  the  psychologj^  of  the  neuroses  as  pur- 
poseful edifices  and  sjnnbols,  which  derive  their 
usually  harmless  material  out  of  childhood  life 
with  its  preparatory  processes.  A  proper  insight 
for  instance  into  the  "CEdipus  complex"  shows 
us  that  it  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  figura- 
tive, sexually  clothed  conception  of  what  consti- 
tutes masculine  self-consciousness,  superiority 
over  woman,  but  at  the  same  time  betrays  the 
cause  which  leads  to  this  phenomenon,  namely  as 
if  the  mother  were  the  only  one  that  one  could  sub- 
jugate, on  whom  one  could  dej)end  or  as  though 
sexual  desire  (already  in  childhood)  were  to  be 
carried  through  in  spite  of  everything  and  always 
by  a  struggle  with  stronger  forces  (the  father, 
dragons,  danger  of  death).  As  may  be  inferred 
from  this  interpretation,  close  inquiry  into  the 
sexual  neuroses  always  leads  to  the  discovery  of  a 
guiding  fiction  which  reveals  itself  in  a  sexual 
form  or  can  be  revealed  by  therapeutists,  as  well 
as  to  the  laying  bare  of  a  mode  of  apperception 
evolved  according  to  a  sexual  scheme  in  conse- 
quence of  which  the  neurotic  and  often  also  the 
normal  person  attempt  to  apprehend  and  under- 
stand the  world  and  all  its  phenomena  in  sexual 
terms,  in  a  sexual  picture  as  it  were.  Our  f  urtlier 
investigations  reveal  that  this  sexual  scheme 
which  is  often  carried  out  in  speech,  in  custom. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  65 

and  manners,  is  only  a  variation  of  that  all-em- 
bracing scheme  of  more  fundamental  origin,  i.e., 
the  antithetical  mode  of  apperception  as  "male- 
female"  "up-down."  ^  The  later  psychic  per- 
verse tendencies  derive  their  material  and  impulse 
from  the  harmless  bodily  sensations  and  mis  judg- 
ments of  childliood  which  when  occasion  arises  are 
given  an  extraordinarily  high  value  or  some 
chance  pleasurable  sensations  are  perceived  as 
analogues  of  sexual  sensations.  The  psycholo- 
gist must  not  assume  the  same  point  of  view,  must 
not  maintain  such  a  mode  of  apperception  as 
valid,  not  substitute  real  sexual  components  for  a 
fiction  as  the  patient  does.  His  task  on  the  con- 
trary consists  in  revealing  to  the  patient  the  su- 
perficiality of  his  attempts  at  orientation,  to  tear 
it  apart  as  mere  product  of  the  imagination,  and 
to  weaken  the  feeling  of  inferiority  which  drives 
the  patient  in  a  convulsive  manner  towards  these 
guiding  principles  which  would  necessitate  the 
carrying  out  of  the  "masculine  protest"  in  a  cir- 
cuitous manner. 

Apperceiving  memory  which  influences   our 

4  See  the  dream  of  Hippias,  Herodotus  VI,  107;  "he  dreamt 
that  he  was  sleeping  with  his  mother."  This  he  dreamed  as  he 
was  about  to  conquer  his  maternal  city,  as  he  had  already  done 
once  before  as  the  companion  of  his  father.  Thus  the  CEdipus 
complex  as  the  symbol  of  the  desire  to  dominate.  With  the  Ro- 
mans too  Beischlaf  (sexual  congress)  symbolized  conquest,  vic- 
tory.   Compare  the  double  meaning  of  the  word  "subigere." 


66  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

cosmic  picture  to  such  a  great  extent  works  also 
with  a  fiction  as  it  were,  with  a  schematic  fiction, 
in  accordance  with  which  we  choose  and  model  our 
perceptions,  our  exi^eriences,  as  well  as  the  train- 
ing of  all  our  connate  tendencies  and  capacities 
until  they  are  changed  into  the  appropriate  psy- 
chical and  technical  skillfulness  and  preparedness. 
The  modus  operandi  of  our  conscious  and  uncon- 
scious memory  and  its  individualization  obey  the 
personal  ideal  and  its  standards.  From  this  we 
are  able  to  deduce  that  as  a  guiding  fiction  its  pur- 
pose is  to  confront  the  problems  of  life  so  soon  as 
the  feeling  of  inferiority  and  uncertainty  impels 
toward  compensation.  This  fixed  guiding  point 
of  our  efforts,  which  in  no  sense  possesses  reality, 
is  absolutely  decisive  for  the  psychic  development, 
for  it  enables  us  to  make  steps  in  the  chaos  of  the 
world,  as  does  the  child  when  learning  to  walk  and 
keeping  in  his  eye  a  goal  which  he  strives  to  reach. 
Far  more  unwaveringly,  the  neurotic  keeps  be- 
fore his  eye  his  God,  his  idol,  his  ideal  of  person- 
ality and  clings  to  his  guiding  principle,  losing 
sight  in  the  meanwhile  of  reality,  whereas  the  nor- 
mal person  is  always  ready  to  dispense  with  this 
crutch,  this  aid,  and  reckon  unhampered  with 
reality.  In  this  instance,  the  neurotic  resembles 
a  person  who  looks  up  to  God,  commends  himself 
to  the  Lord  and  then  and  there  awaits  credulously 
for  his  guidance;  he  is  nailed  to  the  cross  of  his 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  67 

fiction.  The  normal  individual  too  may  and  does 
create  his  deity,  feels  drawn  upward  but  never 
loses  sight  of  reality,  and  always  takes  it  into  ac- 
count as  soon  as  he  is  called  upon  to  act.  Ac- 
cordingly the  neurotic  lives  under  the  hypnotic  in- 
fluence of  an  imaginary  plan  of  life. 

That  this  imaginary  mark  of  the  personal  ideal 
situated  as  it  is  beyond  space  and  time  is  never 
without  effect,  may  be  seen  from  the  trends  of  the 
attention;  interests  and  tendencies  of  these  indi- 
viduals, which  always  lead  to  points  of  view  of  an 
a  priori  nature.  The  exquisite  purposefulness 
of  our  psychic  processes  and  the  predisposition 
determined  thereby  is  responsible  for  the  fact 
that  our  actions  have  definite  beginnings  and  ter- 
minations, that,  as  Ziehen  emphasizes,  voluntary 
and  involuntary  actions  are  constantly  aimed  at 
attaining  a  definite  result,  that  we  must  assume 
with  Pawlow  a  decided  intelligence  in  the  func- 
tioning of  the  organs.  All  these  phenomena  are 
so  convincing  that  philosophers  and  psychologists 
have  from  the  earliest  times  taken  as  a  teleologic 
dogma  everything  which  premeditatively  at- 
tempted an  orientation  according  to  an  assumed 
fixed  point  as  the  goal. 

The  concept  of  natural  selection  is  entirely  too 
inadequate  to  explain  results  which  are  able  to 
take  on  new  and  changing  forms  as  occasion  de- 
mands.    Experience  compels  us  to  consider  all 


68  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

these  phenomena  as  dependent  upon  an  uncon- 
sciously active  fiction,  the  faint  conscious  irradia- 
tions of  which  furnish  us  goals,  according  to 
which  in  the  last  analysis  our  apperception  of  all 
our  experiences  and  activities  is  shaped.  It  is 
less  difficult  to  prove  the  details  of  this  guiding 
fiction,  than  the  fiction  itself,  than  the  fictitious 
goal  itself.  Psychological  research  has  called  at- 
tention to  various  such  goals.  For  our  purpose 
it  will  sufiice  to  consider  critically  just  two  of 
these.  Most  authorities  content  themselves  with 
the  view  that  all  human  activity,  all  volition  is 
dominated  by  feelings  of  pleasure  and  pain. 
Upon  superficial  consideration  these  authors  seem 
to  be  correct  in  their  assumptions,  because  as  a 
matter  of  fact  the  human  psyche  does  tend  to  seek 
pleasure  and  avoid  pain.  But  the  foundation  of 
this  theory  is  unstable.  There  is  no  standard  for 
feelings  of  pleasure,  indeed  no  standard  for  feel- 
ing at  all.  There  exists  fm*thermore  no  percep- 
tion, no  action,  the  effect  of  which  may  not  vary 
in  accordance  with  place  and  time,  under  some 
circumstances  causing  pleasure;  under  others 
pain.  And  even  the  primitive  sensations  result- 
ing from  satisfaction  of  organic  desires  have  their 
gradations  and  vary  with  the  degree  of  satiability 
and  in  accordance  with  cultural  guiding  princi- 
ples, so  that  for  satisfaction  in  itself  to  serve  as 
the  goal,   it  requires   extreme   denial,  and  ab- 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  69 

stinence.  Now  granting  that  satisfaction  has  ac- 
tually been  attained,  does  the  psyche  really  lose 
its  directing  principle?  The  psyche's  iron  neces- 
sity for  orientation  and  security  requires  for  their 
establishment  and  their  functions  a  more  stable 
standpoint  than  the  vacillating  and  uncertain 
principle  of  gratification  of  desire,  and  a  more 
stable  point  of  view  than  the  object  of  attaining 
gratification.  The  impossibility  of  orienting 
one's  self  and  one's  actions  according  to  such  a 
goal  forces  even  the  child  to  abandon  efforts  in 
this  direction.  Finally  it  is  a  misuse  of  an  ab- 
straction to  single  out  and  emphasize  by  means 
of  a  petitio  principii,  out  of  the  various  complex 
psychic  activities,  the  quest  of  pleasure,  as  the 
motive  force,  after  every  isolated  impulse  has  al- 
ready been  explained — as  pleasure  seeking,  as 
libidinous.  Shiller  with  a  keenness  of  vision 
trained  in  the  school  of  Kant  saw  much  further 
when  he  made  a  place  in  the  coming  "philosophy" 
for  the  directing  influence  of  earthly  events,  and 
even  went  so  far  as  to  consider  it  (philosophy) 
dependent  on  "hunger  and  love." 

To  ascribe,  however,  the  whole  directing  force 
to  sexuality  as  Freud  does,  or  what  is  for  him  the 
same  thing,  to  the  libido,  to  ascribe  this  whole  in- 
fluence to  nothing  but  love  is  a  violation  of  logical 
thinking  itself,  a  fiction  of  a  bad  sort,  which  when 
accepted  as  a  dogma  must  lead  to  great  contra- 


70  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

dictions  and  confusion  of  concepts  because  it  con- 
trasts altogether  too  much  with  reahty. 

The  disapproval  of  the  principle  of  "self- 
preservation"  is  more  difficult,  especially  as  that 
principle  is  supported  on  the  one  hand  by  argu- 
ments of  a  teleological  significance,  on  the  other 
hand  by  the  import  of  Darwin's  theory  of  natural 
selection.  But  we  see  constantly  that  we  under- 
take courses  of  action  contrary  to  the  principles 
of  self-preservation  or  to  the  preservation  of  the 
species,  yes,  that  a  certain  arbitrariness  (Fres- 
Meyerhof )  permits  us,  in  regard  to  self-preserva- 
tion as  well  as  in  regard  to  pleasure,  to  raise  or 
lower  our  valuations,  that  we  often  wholly  lose 
sight  of  self-preservation  when  pleasure  or  pain 
enter  into  the  question,  and  that  on  the  other  hand 
we  often  sacrifice  pleasure  when  an  injury  is 
threatened  to  the  ego.  In  what  manner  do  these 
two  incentives  which  are  certainly  not  without  in- 
fluence, range  themselves  under  the  main  guiding 
principle  which  impels  to  the  elevation  of  the  ego- 
consciousness?  The  two  points  of  view  corre- 
spond to  two  types  of  individuals  (to  which  it  is 
possible  to  add  still  others)  one  of  which  is  least 
able  to  dispense  with  pleasure  in  his  ego-con- 
sciousness, while  the  other  places  first  importance 
on  the  feeling  of  life,  on  the  feeling  of  immortal- 
ity. Therefore,  there  arise  modified  modes  of 
perception  which  produce  antitheses  in  thought 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  71 

in  the  sense  of  "pleasure — pain"  or  "life — death." 
The  former  are  unable  to  deprive  pleasure  of 
value,  the  latter  life.  In  the  sense  of  procreation 
which  is  again  thought  of  in  the  manner  of  the 
antithetical  scheme  "male-female,"  these  two 
types  approach  each  other  and  seek  expression 
in  the  direction  of  the  masculine  protest.  As  far 
as  neurotics  are  concerned  the  one  type  has  al- 
ways sought  to  compensate  the  painful  feeling  of 
his  somatic  inferiority,  the  other  type  has  grown 
up  in  the  fear  of  death,  of  dying  early.  Their 
view  of  the  world  furnishes  them  only  fragments, 
their  soul  is  partially  color-blind,  but  notwith- 
standing this  often  more  keen-sighted  than  the 
Daltonists  in  their  understanding  of  color. 

We  close  this  critical  observation  with  a  refer- 
ence to  the  absolute  principle  of  the  "will  to 
power"  a  guiding  fiction  which  sets  in  more  for- 
cibly and  earlier,  and  is  precipitated  and  matured, 
in  proportion  to  the  prominence  assumed  by  the 
consciousness  of  inferiority  in  the  physically  in- 
ferior child.  The  ideal  of  personal  importance 
as  a  point  toward  which  all  efforts  are  directed  is 
created  by  the  craving  for  security  and  contains 
as  imaginary  qualities  all  the  powers  and  natural 
gifts  of  which  the  child  believes  himself  deprived. 
This  fiction,  more  exaggerated  than  under  normal 
conditions,  molds  the  mentality,  the  traits  of 
character  and  predispositions  in  its  own  image. 


72  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  neurotic  apperception  proceeds  according  to 
a  figurative  scheme  containing  sharply  opposed 
antitheses,  and  the  grouping  of  the  impressions 
and  emotions  takes  place  according  to  corre- 
spondingly false  and  imaginary  values. 

It  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  neurotic  fiction,  of 
the  exaggerated  idea  of  personal  worth,  to  reveal 
itself  under  two  forms,  sometimes  as  an  "abstract 
mechanism"  sometimes  as  a  concrete  picture,  or 
as  a  phantasy,  as  an  idea.  In  the  first  case  the 
connection  of  what  is  symbolic  in  the  representa- 
tion with  the  compensated  feeling  of  inferiority 
should  not  be  lost  sight  of,  and  in  the  second  case 
one  must  above  all  take  into  consideration  the 
decisive  share  in  the  process  taken  by  the  psychic 
dynamic  which  impels  "upwards."  ^  In  the 
analysis  of  a  psychogenic  disease  so  long  as  the 
guiding  tendency  "upwards"  does  not  reveal  it- 
self, the  nature  of  the  disease  remains  hidden  to 
us,  for  no  matter  how  valuable  the  insights  of  the 
psycho-therapeutists  have  been,  so  long  as  the 
secondary  guiding  principle  of  attaining  pleasure, 
of  affectivity  (Bleuler)  and  those  which  originate 
as  result  of  physical  inferiority  (Adler)  are  not 
referred  back  to  the  ideal  of  personality — our  un- 
derstanding remains  imperfect,  "there  is  still  un- 
fortunately lacking  the  psychic  bond."     It  is  also 

0  Of  the  later  authors  who  have  especially  emphasized  this  point 
of  view,  I  must  especially  mention  H.  Silberer. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION 


73 


not  astonishing  that  in  different  cases  different 
characteristics  are  given  to  this  ideal  of  person- 
ality and  usually  various  characteristics  at  one 
and  the  same  time  as  these  are  derived  from 
various  sorts  of  organ  defects,  usually  from 
several  at  the  same  time.  A  preliminary,  de- 
cidedly incomplete  diagram  which  v^^ould  corre- 
spond more  to  the  "abstract  psyche"  of  the  neu- 
rotic than  to  that  of  the  normal  individual  would 
be  the  following: 


The  feeling  of  being  above 


In  this  outline  the  most  varied  combinations  must 
be  imagined,  if  it  is  to  serve  its  purpose  as  a  model 
for  the  purpose  of  superficial  orientation.  In- 
stead of  discussing  these  combinations  and  the 
multitudinous  components  we  will  discuss  some 
distinguishing  phenomena  which  seem  important 
for  the  understanding  of  the  neuroses  and  the 
neurotic  character. 


74  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Each  of  the  abstract  guiding  lines  of  the  neuro- 
sis and  of  its  underlying  psychic  mechanism  may 
become  accessible  to  consciousness  by  means  of  a 
memory-picture  or  may  be  rendered  accessible  to 
it.  This  picture  may  originate  from  the  rem- 
nants of  a  childhood  experience,  or  it  is  a  product 
of  phantasy,  a  species  of  the  craving  for  security. 
It  may  represent  a  symbol,  a  trade-mark  as  it 
were,  for  a  certain  mode  of  reaction,  now  and 
then  reaching  development  or  being  reformed 
only  at  a  later  period  often  when  the  neurosis  is 
already  fully  developed.  Being  obviously  the 
effect  of  a  sort  of  economy  of  thought,  which  is 
furnished  bj^  the  principle  of  least  resistance 
(Avenarius),  it  is  never  of  consequence  as  far  as 
its  content  is  concerned,  but  only  as  an  abstract 
scheme  or  as  the  remnant  of  a  psychic  experience 
in  which  the  will  to  power  once  filled  its  destiny. 
This  schematic  fiction,  no  matter  how  concretely 
it  may  manifest  itself,  is  never  to  be  understood 
otherwise  than  in  an  allegorical  sense.  In  it  is 
reflected  an  actual  constituent  part  of  experience 
together  with  a  "moral"  both  of  which  are  re- 
tained by  memory  in  the  interest  of  the  self-assur- 
ance that  is  aimed  at,  either  as  a  memento,  to 
adhere  more  tenaciously  to  the  guiding  principle 
or  as  a  fore-judgment  not  to  abandon  it.  None 
of  these  memory  pictures  has  ever  had  patho- 
genic significance,  like  a  psychic  trauma  for  in- 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  75 

stance,  and  it  is  only  when  the  neurosis  super- 
venes, when  the  feehng  of  degradation  of  the  ego- 
consciousness  leads  to  the  masculine  protest  and 
because  of  this  to  a  closer  attachment  to  the  al- 
ready long  established  compensatory  guiding 
principles  are  these  memory  pictures  hunted  out 
from  material  belonging  to  a  remote  past  and 
come  to  light  because  of  their  usefulness,  partly 
in  order  to  make  possible  the  neurotic's  conduct 
and  partly  to  give  it  meaning.  Here  belong 
above  all  pain,  anxiety  and  affect  predispositions 
which  are  based  upon  such  reminiscences  which 
may  become  actualized  in  an  hallucinatory  man- 
ner, and  which  may  be  likened  to  visual  and  audi- 
tory hallucinations.  Naturally  those  reminis- 
cences will  be  typical  which  stand  in  the  closest 
possible  relation  to  the  guiding  principle  because 
they  represent  or  simulate  for  the  neurotic,  cling- 
ing as  he  does  to  the  guiding  principle,  both  the 
greater  and  smaller  detours  of  which  he  has 
to  avail  himself  in  order  to  elevate  his  ego-con- 
sciousness. The  characteristic  of  the  neurotic 
psyche  is  only  its  tenacious  adherence  to  the  guid- 
ing principle.  It  is  the  contradictions  with  real- 
ity, the  conflicts  which  arise  from  them  and  the 
urgency  to  acquire  social  importance  and  power, 
which  bring  forth  the  symptoms.  This  is  even 
more  obvious  in  such  psychoses  where  the  guiding 
principle  appears  most  subtly.     Misinterpreta- 


76  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

tions  of  reality  are  undertaken,  and  demonstra- 
tions result,  merely,  so  to  speak,  for  the  sake  of 
proof.  In  both  instances,  the  patient  behaves  as 
though  he  had  the  goal  constantly  before  his  eyes. 
In  the  case  of  the  neurosis  he  exaggerates  and 
combats  the  real  obstacles  to  the  maximation  of 
his  ego-consciousness  or  seeks  to  avoid  them  by 
the  construction  of  excuses.  The  psychotic  indi- 
vidual clinging  as  he  does  to  his  idea  (fixe  idee) 
seeks  to  ignore  reality  or  to  transform  it  in  such 
a  way  as  to  make  it  correspond  with  his  unreal 
standpoint.  Freud,  who  has  done  so  much  to- 
ward the  discovery  of  symbolism  in  the  neurosis 
and  psychosis,  has  called  attention  to  the  galaxy 
of  symbols.  Unfortunately  he  has  carried  his 
investigations  only  to  the  point  of  discovering 
the  actual  or  possible  sexual  formulae  in  these 
symbols,  and  has  not  pursued  their  further  eluci- 
dation into  the  dynamic  eventuality  of  the  mas- 
culine protest,  of  striving  "upward."  Thus  it 
happened  that  for  him  the  meaning  of  the  neuro- 
sis became  exhausted  in  the  conversion  of  libidi- 
nous stimuli  whereas,  in  reality  that  which  lies 
behind  the  symbolism  is  the  appearance  of  or  the 
actual  impulsion  toward  a  maximation  of  the 
masculine  ego-consciousness. 

We  have  described  the  guiding  ideal  of  the  ego 
as  a  fiction,  thus  denying  its  reality,  but  we  must 
nevertheless  assert  that  although  unreal  it  is  of 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  77 

the  greatest  importance  for  the  process  of  hfe, 
and  for  the  psychic  development.  Vaihinger  in 
his  "Philosophy  of  As  If"  has  given  a  brilliant 
elucidation  of  this  apparent  contradiction,  and 
recognized  the  fiction  as  an  opposition  to  reality 
but  as  indisj)ensable  for  the  development  of 
science.  Reference  to  this  singular  relationship 
in  the  psychology  of  the  neuroses  was  first  made 
by  me  and  I  was  considerably  assisted  and  con- 
firmed in  my  view  by  Vaihinger's  work.  I  am 
thus  in  a  position  to  say  something  concerning 
the  fiction  of  ego-consciousness,  and  to  throw 
some  light  on  its  significance  as  well  as  on  its 
mode  of  appearance  in  the  psyche.  It  is  first 
of  all  an  abstraction  and  must  in  itself  be  re- 
garded as  the  indication  of  an  anticipation.  It 
is,  so  to  speak,  the  marshall's  staff  ^  in  the  wallet  of 
the  insignificant  soldier,  and  may  be  looked  upon 
as  "payment  on  account"  demanded  by  the  prim- 
itive feeling  of  uncertainty.  The  construction 
of  the  fiction  takes  place  by  setting  aside  disquiet- 
ing inferiorities  and  burdensome  realities  in  the 
idea,  as  always  happens  when  the  psyche  seeks 

«  For  the  benefit  of  psychologists  of  a  keener  insight,  I  note 
here  that  the  prevalence  of  examples  which  have  been  taken  from 
military  life  have  been  chosen  by  me  with  an  especial  object  in 
view.  In  military  training  the  starting  point  and  fictive  purpose 
are  brought  into  closer  relation,  can  be  more  readily  noted,  and 
every  movement  of  the  training  soldier  becomes  a  dexterity 
which  has  for  its  purpose  the  transformation  of  a  primary  feel- 
ing of  weakness  into  a  feeling  of  superiority. 


78  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

certainty  and  escape  from  its  restraint.  The 
painful  uncertainty  is  reduced  to  its  lowest  possi- 
ble, albeit  apparently  causal  amount,  and  this  is 
transformed  into  its  very  antithesis  which  is  in 
turn  made  into  the  fictive  goal  of  every  wish- 
phantasy  and  desire.  It  is  then  that  this  goal 
may  be  made  concrete  for  the  sake  of  becoming 
self-evident.  For  instance,  the  restriction  of 
food  in  childhood  is  felt  as  an  abstract  "nothing," 
as  want,  in  contrast  to  this  feeling  the  child  comes 
to  long  for  "all,"  for  superfluity  until  it  brings 
this  goal  much  nearer  to  the  understandmg  in  the 
person  of  the  father,  in  the  form  of  a  tradition- 
ally rich  person,  of  a  mighty  Kaiser.  The  more 
intensely  the  deprivation  was  felt  the  more  forci- 
ble is  this  imaginary  abstract  ideal  constructed 
and  starting  therefrom  begins  the  formation  and 
classification  of  the  given  psychical  forces  to  pre- 
paratory attitudes,  facilities  and  traits  of  charac- 
ter. The  individual  then  carries  these  traits  of 
character  demanded  by  the  fictive  goal  just  as 
the  mask  of  the  ancient  actor — persona — was  re- 
quired to  fit  to  the  denouement  of  the  tragedy. 
Should  there  stir  in  a  boy  doubt  concerning  his 
manliness,  as  happens  in  constitutionally  in- 
ferior children,  feeling  as  they  do  to  be  kindred 
to  girls,  he  chooses  a  goal  of  such  a  nature  as 
will  give  him  mastery  over  women  (usually  also 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  79 

over  all  men) .  Through  this  his  attitude  toward 
women  is  determined  at  an  early  age.  He  will 
constantly  show  a  tendency  to  bring  about  his 
superiority  over  women,  will  undervalue  and  de- 
grade the  feminine  sex,  will,  figuratively  speak- 
ing— raise  the  hand  against  his  mother,  which  in 
neurotically  disposed  children  often  finds  expres- 
sion in  a  gesture  or  in  their  psychic  attitude,  and 
will  in  a  playful  manner  take  his  model  from  the 
mother  in  order  to  test  himself  in  the  manly  role 
before  it.  The  development  of  this  sort  of  in- 
fantile attitude  of  readiness  where  a  rigid  pedan- 
tic behavior  becomes  manifest,  where  the  child's 
excited  desire  for  mastery  seeks  a  confirmation, 
and  an  assurance  of  his  ego-consciousness,  simi- 
lar to  the  one  he  has  experienced  from  his  mother, 
that  is,  conditions  in  which  he  is  able  in  the  same 
manner  to  satisfy  his  craving  for  security  is  al- 
ready to  be  looked  upon  as  a  neurotic  trait.  It  is 
only  to  this  neurotic  fixity  of  the  uncertainty  that 
Nietzsche's  assertion  is  applicable,  namely  that';, 
"every  ^ie-  carries  within  him  a  portrait  of  ^ 
womankind  which  he  has  derived  from  his  mother, 
and  which  makes  him  honor  woman  or  despise  ^ 
her  or  entertain  a  total  indifference  toward  her." 
Yet  we  must  concede  that  these  individuals  are 
in  the  majority.  Among  them  are  many  who 
were  disdained  by  their  mother,  since  which  time 


80  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

they  fear  a  like  setback  from  every  woman,  or 
demand  from  her  an  extraordinary  measure  of 
surrender. 

In  the  life  and  development  of  man  there  is 
nothing  that  sets  to  work  with  greater  secrecy 
than  the  construction  of  the  ideal  of  personality. 
If  we  inquire  into  the  cause  of  this  secrecy,  it 
seems  that  the  most  important  basis  lies  in  the 
combative,  not  to  say  hostile  character  of  this 
fiction.  It  has  originated  through  a  constant 
measuring  and  weighing  of  the  advantages  of 
others  and  must  therefore  bring  about  according 
to  the  principle  of  antithesis  which  lies  at  the  root 
of  this  process,  the  injury  to  others.  The  psy- 
chological analysis  of  the  neurotic  shows  always 
the  presence  of  the  tendency  to  depreciation, 
which  is  summarily  directed  toward  every  one. 
The  combative  tendencies  ^  become  regularly 
manifest  in  greed,  in  envy,  in  longing  for  superi- 
ority. But  the  fiction  of  gaining  the  mastery 
over  others  can  only  be  used,  be  taken  into  ac- 
count if  it  does  not  disturb  the  combination  of 
relations  from  the  beginning.  And  therefore, 
this  fiction  must  early  become  unrecognizable, 
must  assume  a  disguise,  or  it  destroys  itself. 
This  disguise  takes  place  by  the  positing  of  an 
anti-fiction,  which  first  of  all  directs  visible  con- 
duct, and  under  the  stress  of  which  reality  is  ap- 

f  S.  "Der  Aggressionstrieb  im  Leben  und  in  der  Neurose." 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  81 

proached,  and  the  recognition  of  its  effective 
forces  is  accomplished.  This  contrary  fiction,  al- 
ways of  the  nature  of  current,  corrective  in- 
stances, brings  about  the  formal  change  of  the 
guiding  fiction  by  pressing  its  own  claim  to  con- 
sideration, by  presenting  for  recognition  social 
and  ethical  demands  at  their  true  value  and  thus 
assuring  the  reasonableness  of  thinking  and  act- 
ing. It  is  the  security  coefficient  of  the  guiding 
line  to  power  and  the  harmony  of  the  two  fictions, 
their  mutual  compatibility  which  is  the  sign  of 
mental  health.  In  the  contrary  fiction  are  active 
experience  and  education,  social  and  cultural 
formulas,  and  the  traditions  of  society.  In  times 
of  good  humor,  of  security,  of  normal  conditions, 
of  peace,  this  is  the  prevailing  form,  which  causes 
a  restraint  of  the  combative  predispositions  and 
effects  an  adaptation  of  the  traits  of  charac- 
ter to  the  environment.  Should  the  insecurity 
increase  and  the  consciousness  of  inferiority 
emerge,  then  the  contrary-fiction  is  deprived  of 
value  because  of  an  increasing  abstraction  from 
reality,  the  dexterities  become  mobilized,  the 
nervous  dogmatic  character  asserts  itself  and 
with  it  the  exaggerated  sense  of  ego-ideal.  It 
is  one  of  the  triumphs  of  human  wit  to  put 
through  the  guiding  fiction  by  adapting  it  to  the 
antifiction,  to  shine  through  modesty,  to  conquer 
by  humility   and   submissiveness,   to   humihate 


82  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

others  by  one's  virtues,  to  attack  others  by  one's 
own  passivity,  to  cause  pain  to  others  by  one's 
own  suffering,  to  strive  to  attain  the  goal  of 
manly  force  by  effeminate  means,  to  make  one- 
self small  in  order  to  appear  great.  Of  such 
sort,  however,  are  often  the  expedients  of  neu- 
rotics. 

Concerning  the  significance  of  the  most  primi- 
tive perception  and  emotion  as  an  abstraction  I 
need  waste  no  words.  Just  as  abstract  is  the 
positing  of  an  imaginary  guiding  point  and  of 
this  life  plan  which  is  now  spun  out  between  these 
two  points.  With  reference  to  the  neurotic  psy- 
che we  have  repeatedly  emphasized  that  it  is 
the  greater  insecurity  which  alone  tends  to  with- 
draw the  guiding  point  still  further  from  reality, 
to  set  it  higher.  In  addition  to  this  the  inferior 
sense  organs  yield  qualitatively  and  quantita- 
tively changed  sensations,  and  the  organs  of  exe- 
cution a  changed  technique  usually  in  the  sense 
of  greater  limitation,  so  that  the  self-esteem,  the 
ideal  guiding  representation,  the  representation 
of  the  world  and  the  life  plan  must  be  formed 
differently  from  normal  representations  of  this 
sort,  in  that  they  are  more  abstract,  less  in  con- 
formity with  reality.  In  this  process  it  is  true 
the  compensation  and  over-compensation  may 
sometimes  bring  the  conception  of  the  world  and 
the  line  of  reality  nearer  together  as  in  the  great 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  83 

performances  of  the  neurotic  psyche.  The  over- 
tense  personal  ideal,  however,  which  acquires  ab- 
solute rigidity,  which  assumes  nearly  an  identity 
with  God,  often  lends  to  the  nature  and  behavior 
of  the  neurotic  and  psychotic  a  pronounced  hypo- 
manic  character,  if  the  preparations  therefore, 
the  feeling  of  insignificance,  the  ideas  of  perse- 
cution did  not  counteract  this  character  by  caus- 
ing a  sort  of  inner  certainty  without  which  the 
positing  of  the  goal  would  be  impossible,  by  caus- 
ing a  feeling  of  predestination.  In  the  phases 
of  greater  insecurity  this  characteristic  is  consid- 
erably stronger  and  its  significance  as  anticipation 
of  the  guiding  fiction,  as  pajnnent  on  account 
becomes  distinctly  obvious. 

Gustav  Freytag  in  his  "Reminiscences  of  my 
Life"  describes  the  usefulness  of  the  compensa- 
tory performance  in  the  following  manner : 

"But  too  the  bull's-eye-shot  on  the  target  is 
difficult  to  me.  For  at  Oels  I  had  noticed  during 
the  instruction  that  I  was  very  near  sighted. 
When  I  complained  of  this  during  the  vacation 
to  my  father,  he  advised  me  to  make  my  way 
through  the  world  without  glasses  and  told  me  a 
story  illustrating  the  helplessness  of  a  theologist 
who  had  made  him  get  up  out  of  bed  one  morn- 
ing to  hunt  his  spectacles  so  that  he  could  find  his 
trousers.  I  followed  this  advice  and  have  accus- 
tomed myself  to  the  use  of  spectacles  only  at  the 


84  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

theater  and  in  looking  at  pictures.  I  sought  to 
overcome  the  disadvantages  under  which  I  la- 
bored in  society  from  this  defect  and  overlooked 
much  unsuspectedly  which  would  have  disgusted 
a  sharper  observer.  I  was  often  obliged  to 
forego  the  enjoyment  of  flowers,  beauty  in  dress, 
of  remarkable  countenances  and  beauty  in  women 
from  which  others  derived  pleasure.  But  as  the 
same  adjusted  itself  adroitly  to  this  defect  of 
sense,  there  was  soon  developed  in  me  a  good  un- 
derstanding of  those  expressions  of  hfe  which 
came  within  my  range  of  vision  and  a  quick  divi- 
nation of  much  which  was  not  clear  to  me;  the 
smaller  number  of  the  perceptions  permitted  me 
to  elaborate  those  which  were  perceived  with 
greater  ease  and  perhaps  more  profoundly.  At 
any  rate  the  loss  was  greater  than  the  gain.  But 
my  father  was  thus  far  right,  my  eyes  preserved 
unchanged  througliout  my  entire  life  their  keen- 
ness of  vision  at  close  distances." 

If  one  imagines  the  development  of  a  visual 
phantasy  of  this  sort  which  constantly  draws 
away  from  reality  goaded  by  the  pressure  of  the 
craving  for  security,  there  results  for  the  same 
purpose  of  obtaining  security  as  in  the  above 
cited  example,  an  ability  to  produce  visual  hallu- 
cinations wliich  can  manifest  itself  even  outside 
of  dream  states,  for  the  purpose  of  presenting 
warnings  to  preserve  personal  security  and  en- 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  85 

cour aging  consolations.  The  abstractions  and 
also  the  anticipations  have  even  gone  farther  and 
may  lead  to  the  well  known  remarkable  patho- 
logical expressions  of  the  "telepaths"  or  Cassan- 
dra natures.  The  disquieting  consciousness  of 
inferiority  gives  a  terrible  incentive  to  this  reach- 
ing out  beyond  the  limits  of  human  possibilities 
here  as  in  other  instances,  and  this  consciousness 
finding  refuge  in  weakness  ascribes  to  others  a 
greater  power  of  vision,  as  though  they  could  see 
what  was  hidden,  could  read  the  thoughts.  The 
child  in  his  craving  for  secm-ity  with  his  natural 
secrecy  may  early  incline  to  just  this  point  in 
order  to  gain  security,  and  act  under  the  imagi- 
nary assumption  that  others  can  "see  into  his 
heart,"  can  divine  his  most  hidden  thoughts,  an 
assumption  which  often  makes  its  appearance  as 
an  expedient  in  the  neurosis  and  psychosis  and 
has  the  same  value  as  the  exaggerated  feeling  of 
guilt,  perhaps,  and  neurotic  conscientiousness, 
and  whose  purpose  is  to  avoid  a  degradation  of 
self-esteem,  shame,  punishment,  mockery,  hu- 
mihation,  the  feminine  role,  death. 

The  increased  capacity  of  the  neurotic  for  ab- 
stractions for  anticipations  is  not  only  at  the  root 
of  his  hallucinatory  character,  of  his  fantasies 
and  his  dreams  but  also  of  the  over-exertion  of 
organ  functioning  of  which  he  makes  use  in  pur- 
poseful efforts  as  preparations  for  the  combat. 


86  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Thus  the  neurotic  makes  for  himself  a  place  by- 
more  abstract  prevision  and  premeditation,  and 
constructs  thereof,  that  neurotic  foresight  which 
is  regularly  present  in  this  disease,  by  means  of 
which  the  patient  holds  the  possibilities  of  expe- 
rience constantly  before  him  arranged  dogmati- 
cally and  in  sharply  antithetical  groups  accord- 
ing to  the  Scheme  "Triumph— Defeat."     Or  he 
places  his  environment  under  ban  by  heightening 
the  sensibility  of  his  organs  (which  is  the  first  step 
towards  hallucinations)    showing  hypersensibil- 
ity  to  smells,  sounds,  touch,  temperature,  tastes 
and  pains,  and  this  brings  his  undertakings  con- 
stantly into  harmony  with  his  imaginary  mascu- 
line guiding  principle.     Foolishness  and  super- 
stitious convictions  of  a  hopeless  destiny,  the  firm 
seated  belief  in  one's  own  ill  luck  serve  the  same 
purpose  of  satisfying  the  craving  for  security  by 
constructing  the  proof  that  caution  is  necessary. 
The  hallucinatory  awakening  of  anxiety  works 
in  the  same  direction,  of  which  the  neurotic  makes 
extensive  use. 

That  the  traits  of  character  as  well  as  the  emo- 
tional predispositions  serve  the  guiding  fiction,  it 
is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  prove  to  the  fullest 
degree.  The  guiding  line  of  the  neurotic  leading 
in  a  directly  perpendicular  line  upwards  de- 
mands peculiar  expedients  and  forms  of  life 
which  are  included  under  the  little  uniform  con- 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  87 

cept  of  the  neurotic  symptoms.  Now  one  finds 
safety-devices  at  remote  places,  prohibitory  ar- 
rangements, protective  combats,  for  the  purpose 
of  assuring  success  to  the  central  impulse,  the  will 
to  power,  then  again  there  are,  and  these  are  often 
difficult  to  understand,  circuitous  ways  compa- 
rable to  secret  paths,  taken  so  as  not  to  lose  the 
guiding  line  when  the  direct  way  to  the  masculine 
triumph  is  barred.  Often  a  change  of  nervous 
phenomena  is  observed  which  resembles  tentative 
experiments,  until  the  more  severe  symptom 
guarantees  a  concordance  with  the  guiding  idea. 

I  believe  too  that  I  have  presented  in  the 
present  work  these  symptoms  and  their  psycho- 
genesis  coherently  and  to  a  sufficient  extent. 
They  all  rest  on  dexterity  acquired  by  long 
practice  and  preparation  whose  hypervalency  is 
supported  through  the  medium  of  and  is  founded 
on  the  fitness  for  the  combat  to  preserve  the  ideal 
self-esteem.  The  preparations  themselves  com- 
mence in  the  beginning  of  the  neurosis,  accom- 
pany the  development  of  the  idea  of  personal 
worth  and  are  adapted  to  it.  They  are  most 
clearly  recognized  in  the  reminiscences  of  child- 
hood which  have  been  presented  in  the  oft  re- 
turning dreams,  in  the  mimic,  the  habitus,  in  the 
play  of  children,  in  their  phantasies,  concerning 
future  vocations,  concerning  the  future. 

It  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  too  elevated  guiding 


88  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

idea  that  it  should  estrange  the  person  who  en- 
tertains it,  that  is  the  neurotic,  from  reahty. 
Not  infrequently  this  condition  manifests  itself 
in  a  "feeling  of  strangeness"  which  is  again  over- 
estimated and  used  with  a  view  to  a  certain  effect, 
i.e.,  to  recommend  a  cautious  retreat  in  an  inse- 
cure situation.  Apparently  opposite  to  this 
"back"  an  unjustified  feeling  of  confidence  in  a 
situation,  the  feeling  of  "deja  vu"  sometimes  be- 
comes manifest,  often  in  the  form  of  a  concealed 
analogy  for  the  purpose  of  warning  or  encourag- 
ing.^ In  neurotic  students  I  have  sometimes  ob- 
served that  led  by  the  feeling  of  their  predestina- 
tion scholars  have  sought  a  hearing  on  subjects 
with  which  they  were  wholly  unfamiliar  with  the 
result  of  total  failure.  Such  experiences  may 
cause  the  neurotic  to  be  suspicious  of  his  empha- 
sized feeling  of  "self-confidence"  which  may 
emerge,  as  though  he  preserved  a  bad  after-taste. 
The  security  through  the  exaggerated  idea  of 
self-esteem  and  the  adherence  to  it  determines 
often  the  feeling  of  or  even  a  real  condition  of 
estrangement  from  the  world,  which  indeed  is 
usually  exaggerated  with  a  definite  purpose. 
Fear  for  everything  now,  ponderousness,  awk- 

8  The  feeling  of  strangeness  and  the  feeling  of  familiarity  in 
the  neurosis  are  analogous  to  the  image  of  warning  and  exhortation 
of  an  inner  voice  in  the  dream,  the  hallucination  and  the  attitude  in 
the  psychosis. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  89 

wardness,  bashfulness,  then  accompany  the  neu- 
rotic who  avoids  reahty  and  reveals  his  efforts  to 
reinterpret,  reconstruct  and  remodel  it.  This 
deficiency  also  seeks  its  compensation  and  in  less 
severe  cases  finds  it  in  the  antifiction  leading  to 
reality,  which  again  in  an  abstract,  usually  urgent 
form  seeks  to  over-estimate  the  significance  of 
the  reality  from  exaggerated  fear  of  it  in  order 
to  raise  up  preparations  against  error  and  defect 
at  all  times.  The  vacillation  between  the  ideal 
and  the  real  manifests  itself  in  an  extreme  way 
in  the  neurotic  psyche,  in  which  the  passion  for 
doubting  assumes  the  form  of  a  paradigm  for  the 
real  "truth,"  as  the  final  goal  of  power  which 
the  neurotic  is  to  attain.  Or  the  outer  forms  are 
pedantically  held  to  and  over-estimated  as  is  a 
fetish,  and  as  though  they  guaranteed  security. 
The  following  sentence  from  Hebel's  letters  ^ 
seems  to  me  to  indicate  this  feature. 

"One  can  never  pay  sufiScient  honor  to  the 
outer  forms  which  in  youth  are  so  thoughtlessly 
ridiculed,  for  they  are  the  only  lines  which  assist 
in  making  decisions  in  the  restlessly  changing 
world  without  law  or  order" —  In  small  things 
as  in  great  this  craving  for  security  is  always 
manifested  and  humanity  is  always  seeking  it  by 
analogies,  and  by  abstract  dogmatic  methods. 

9  R.  W.  Werner,  from  Hebel's  youth,  Oesterreichische   Rund- 
schau, 1911. 


90  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  frequency  of  sexual  guiding  lines  in  the 
neuroses  is  explained  in  unprejudiced  analyses 
upon  the  following  grounds : 

1.  Because  they  furnish  a  suitable  form  of  ex- 
pression for  the  masculine  protest. 

2.  Because  it  lies  within  the  option  of  the 
patient  to  feel  them  as  real. 

Therefore,  the  adaptation  of  the  sexual  im- 
aginary guiding  line  depends  also  on  its  value  in 
procuring  security  for  the  feeling  of  self-esteem, 
on  its  significance  as  an  abstraction  and  quality 
of  exciting  hallucinations,  and  on  its  quality  of 
easily  receiving  a  concrete  form  and  because  it 
admits  of  anticipations. 

According  to  this  the  hallucinatory  character  of 
the  neurotic  is  a  peculiar  instance  of  the  mecha- 
nism of  security.  It  makes  use,  as  does  thinking 
and  speech,  of  the  primitive  recollections  reduced 
to  the  smallest  dynamic  measure  to  which  he  is 
drawn  by  means  of  the  abstracting  power  of  the 
craving  for  security.  Its  function  and  office  is 
to  calculate  the  way  to  the  desired  heights  by  use 
of  analogy  from  experiences  which  have  their 
place  in  childhood  in  emphasizing  set-backs  that 
have  been  endured  or  comforting  memories  of 
evils  that  have  been  overcome. 

The  hallucinatory  power  represents  a  com- 
pleted preparation  accomplished  by  the  over- 
strained craving  for  security,  and  takes  its  ma- 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  91 

terial,  as  does  also  the  function  of  thought  and 
premeditation  from  the  cast-iron  element  of  the 
neurotically  directed  memory.  That  which  is 
called  regression  in  dream  and  in  hallucinations 
by  other  writers  is  the  every-day  process  of 
thought  which  gropes  back  to  experience,  and  can 
only  refer  to  the  material  of  the  dreams  and  hal- 
lucinations, but  never  to  their  dynamics. 

The  psychic  dynamic  of  an  hallucination  con- 
sist therefore  in  this,  that  in  a  situation  of  uncer- 
tainty, a  guiding  line  is  sought  with  might  and  is 
hypostasized  by  means  of  an  abstraction,  per 
analogium  with  the  evaluation  of  experience,  by 
means  of  anticipation  and  by  means  of  a  fictitious 
rendition  of  something  closely  related  to  a  sensory 
perception.  This  latter  ability  as  the  most  effec- 
tive means  of  expression  may,  by  reason  of  the 
anti-fiction  which  inclines  to  reality,  be  felt  as  in 
conscious  opposition  to  reality  as  in  dreams,  or  in 
the  craving  for  security  dissolves  the  anti-fiction 
and  permits  the  hallucination  to  be  felt  as  real. 

Jodl  defined  civilization  as  "the  increased  ef- 
fort of  man  under  certain  circumstances  and  with 
special  intensity  to  secure  his  person  and  life 
against  hostile  powers  of  nature  as  well  as  from 
the  antagonism  of  his  fellow  men,  to  satisfy  his 
needs  both  real  and  ideal  in  a  greater  measure 
and  to  bring  his  nature  without  obstacle  to  devel- 
opment." 


92  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  neurotic  individual  holds  the  guiding  line 
much  more  constantly  in  view,  but  may  accord- 
ingly need  to  bring  to  expression  schematically 
and  dogmatically  the  guiding  line  which  leads  to 
the  transcendental  or  the  anti-fiction  which  tends 
to  culture,  the  latter  in  the  sense  of  a  neurotic 
circuitous  way,  in  which,  for  example,  he  seems 
to  submit  to  an  extreme  degree  to  the  "antago- 
nism of  his  fellow  men"  for  the  purpose  of  tri- 
umphing over  them. 

The  evolution  of  the  effort  to  bring  his  nature 
to  the  fullest  development,  to  attain  the  pinnacle 
of  that  which  the  neurotic  individual  may  call  his 
culture  leads  us  back  again  to  the  already  men- 
tioned preparations  so  important  from  a  psycho- 
logical point  of  view,  to  the  tentative  efforts 
which  are  supposed  to  be  introduced  by  the  orig- 
inal consciousness  of  inferiority. 

All  the  imperfect  organs  in  a  state  of  infantile 
development  strive  with  all  their  connate  capaci- 
ties and  possibilities  of  development  to  form  pur- 
poseful, so  to  speak  intelligent  preparatory  ar- 
rangements. In  the  efforts  of  the  constitution- 
ally inferior  organs  with  their  numerous  abortive 
performances  arises,  as  a  consequence  of  the 
greater  tension  in  the  presence  of  the  require- 
ments of  the  external  world,  the  impression  of 
uncertainty,  the  self-esteem  of  the  child  brings 
forward  a  permanent  consciousness  of  inferiority. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  93 

Thus  it  happens  that  already  in  early  childhood 
the  mastery  of  the  situation  according  to  an  ex- 
ample taken  as  a  model  or  to  dominate  the  situ- 
ation even  far  beyond  the  power  indicated  in  the 
model  is  taken  as  the  guiding  motive  and  a  per- 
manent impulse  of  will  is  founded  which  hands 
over  the  permanent  guidance  to  a  directing  idea 
— "the  will  to  power."  The  positing  of  a  goal  in 
the  neurotic  character  is  a  phase  of  the  same  tend- 
ency. This  goal  corresponds  consciously  or  un- 
consciously to  the  formula:  "I  must  act  in  such 
a  way  that  in  the  end  I  become  the  master  of  the 
situation."  Long  continuation  of  the  child  in 
the  phase  of  consciousness  of  inferiority  leads  to 
a  heightening  and  strengthening  of  the  intensity 
of  that  formula,  so  that  from  the  unusual  inten- 
sity of  all  efforts,  the  preparatory  actions  and  the 
predispositions,  the  traits  of  character  of  any 
period  of  development  may  be  inferred  as  original 
consciousness  of  inferiority.  Also  in  organs  fall- 
ing below  the  normal  standard  the  tentative  ef- 
forts are  manifested,  which  produce  preparations 
and  expedients  in  walking,  seeing,  eating,  hear- 
ing. Exner  emphasizes  that  these  tentative  ef- 
forts are  like  those  which  precede  the  grasping 
of  the  sound  combinations  when  children  are 
learning  to  speak.  Much  more  convulsive  in 
form  are  the  preliminary  processes  in  the  defec- 
tive organ,  whose  preparations  and  methods  of 


94  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

functioning  in  favorable  examples  of  over-com- 
pensation, are  in  height,  light  artistic  perform- 
ances and  perfection,  but  which  often  as  in  the 
neurosis  because  of  the  close  guard  kept  and  the 
cautiousness,  rarely  attain  full  development. 
The  child  seeks  to  learn  his  faults  in  the  way 
offered  him  by  the  craving  for  security,  and  seeks 
to  remedy  them  or  to  gain  advantage  from  them 
in  using  them  as  an  expedient.  As  he  does  not 
know  the  real  reason  for  his  inferiority,  often 
from  pride  does  not  wish  to  know  them,  he  is 
easily  misled  to  ascribe  them  to  external  reasons, 
to  blame  the  "spits  of  objects"  or  usually,  his  rel- 
atives, and  assumes  then  an  aggressive,  hostile 
attitude  to  the  real  objective  world.  Usually  he 
retains  a  foreboding,  a  presentiment  of  ill-luck  as 
an  abstract  reminder  of  his  feelings  of  inferiority, 
which  he  is  likely  to  exaggerate,  often  develops 
to  a  feeling  of  guilt,  if  circumstances  admit  of 
this,  in  order  to  unfold  his  pre-vision,  his  fore- 
sight with  good  reason.  The  neurotic  endeavors 
are  above  all  directed  towards  enlarging  and  se- 
curing the  boundaries  of  self-esteem  by  con- 
stantly estimating  and  testing  the  powers  in  the 
difficulties  of  the  objective  world. 

To  over-exertion  in  this  effort  may  be  traced 
many  of  the  traits  of  the  neurotic — his  inclination 
to  play  with  fire,  to  make  dangerous  situations 
and  hunt  for  them,  his  pleasure  in  the  gruesome 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  95 

and  the  diabolical  (Michel).  The  inclination  to 
crime,  like  the  sadistic  inclination  lies  in  the  mas- 
culine guiding  line,  but  is  often  neutralized  by  the 
contradictory  idea  which  develops  and  is  more 
often  exaggerated  in  memory,  with  the  purpose 
of  warning  from  execution. 

Nervousness,  by  preference,  utilizes  organic 
defectiveness,  the  infantile  defects,  the  sense  of 
ill-health  in  general,  on  the  one  hand  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  the  ego-consciousness  against  the 
requirements  of  parental  authority,  usually  by 
means  of  a  stubborn  revolt  on  the  other  hand 
for  the  purpose  of  postponing  by  a  sort  of  arti- 
ficial obstruction  decisions  and  coUisions  which 
might  be  dangerous  to  the  masculine  fiction,  that 
is  to  say,  the  relinquishing  of  certain  positions 
of  advantage  in  order  to  retain  more  impor- 
tant ones.  Indeed  the  neurotic  individual  often 
seeks  minor  defeats,  even  brings  them  about  arti- 
ficially, or  assumes  dangerous  outlooks  in  order 
thereby  to  justify  his  neurotic  acts  and  caution. 
In  neurotically  retained  childhood  defects  a  spe- 
cial refractoriness  and  strong  aggression  against 
the  father  and  mother  may  be  expected. 

Thus  a  compulsory  striving  toward  the  under- 
standing of  objective  difficulties,  efforts  to  over- 
come them,  to  gain  the  mastery,  to  combat  them, 
undervaluation  and  depreciation  of  life  and  its 
joys  or  flight  from  them  characterize  a  phase  of 


OG  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

the  neurosis.  Along  with  this  the  fact  very  fre- 
quently comes  to  light  that  the  patient  is  very 
enthusiastic  for  life,  for  work,  for  love  and  mar- 
riage, but  platonically,  while  secretly  he  bars  the 
access  to  them  through  the  neurosis,  in  order  to 
make  sure  of  his  domination  in  the  more  limited 
field  of  the  family  with  the  father  and  mother. 

This  outwardly  directed  anxious  and  cautious 
glance  of  the  neurotic  which  is  intended  to  pre- 
serve the  guiding  fiction  is  regularly  accompa- 
nied by  a  self-observation  of  a  higher  intensity. 
Sometimes  in  a  situation  of  psychic  uncertainty 
the  personified,  deified  guiding  idea  is  met  with 
as  a  second  self,  as  an  inner  voice  like  the  Diemon 
of  Socrates  which  warns,  encourages,  punishes, 
accuses.  And  that  which  the  neurasthenics  and 
hypochondriacs  relate  to  us  concerning  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  inwardly  rage,  how  keenly  they 
examine  and  follow  every  act  of  their  lives  is 
true  of  neurotics  generally.  The  self-observa- 
tion may  lead  to  a  limitation  of  the  field  of  com- 
bat, through  it  it  utilizes  expressions  of  fear  of 
sickness,  by  means  of  which  the  neurotic  individ- 
ual is  always  in  a  position  to  beat  a  retreat  for  the 
sake  of  security.  It  must  be  thought  of  as  effec- 
tive, when  the  primitive  expedients  for  gaining 
security,  such  as  anxiety,  shame,  bashfulness,  or 
the  more  complex  ones,  as  modesty,  conscientious- 
ness, nervous  attacks,  accompany  the  presenti- 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  97 

ment  of  a  defeat,  in  order  not  to  allow  the  self- 
esteem  to  sink  below  the  required  level.  Self- 
observation  and  self-esteem  always  excited  and 
reenforced  by  the  guiding  fiction  so  that  a  base 
of  operation  is  offered  and  the  aggressions  in- 
troduced produce  immediately  the  neurotic,  dog- 
matic traits  of  character,  of  envy,  greed,  tyranny, 
etc.  The  exaggerated  introspection  plays  a  con- 
stant role  in  the  continuous  measuring  and 
wrestling  of  the  neurotic  individual  to  test  his 
own  worth  against  that  of  others,  it  gives  hints 
to  premeditation  and  phantasy  and  announces  its 
presence  when  the  patient  avoids  making  a  de- 
cision or  when  for  the  same  purpose  he  gives  him- 
self up  permanently  to  doubt. 

That  all  these  introspections  originate  from 
the  feeling  of  insufficiency  and  are  influenced  by 
it  is  just  as  easy  to  understand,  as  that  they 
finally  reach  the  goal  to  which  they  in  reality 
tend,  i.e.,  caution.  Thus  introspection  is  at  once 
hesitation,  egotism,  megalomania,  doubt,  self -de- 
preciatory psychosis,  and  stands  in  connection 
with  all  other  phenomena  which  are  caused  by  the 
consciousness  of  inferiority.  It  serves  especially 
for  the  reenforcement  and  testing  of  the  mascuHne 
protest,  of  characteristics  such  as  courage,  pride, 
ambition,  etc.,  as  well  as  the  purpose  of  increas- 
ing all  those  tendencies  whose  acme  is  security, 
such  as  economy,  exactness,  industry,  cleanliness. 


98  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

It  influences  the  attention  and  serves  also  to 
dominate  it,  so  that  it  occupies  a  prominent  posi- 
tion in  that  mesh  of  traits  whose  object  it  is  to 
gain  security.  The  results,  however,  at  which  it 
arrives  are  purposely  falsified.  It  would  be  very 
erroneous  to  regard  it  as  libidinous  or  as  pleasure 
producing.  Its  function  is  rather  to  group  all 
the  impressions  of  the  objective  world  and  to 
bring  them  under  a  single  test,  in  such  a  way,  so 
to  speak,  that  the  primary  uncertainty  of  the  in- 
dividual shall  be  assured  from  being  unmasked 
by  a  mathematical  or  statistical  guarantee  accord- 
ing to  the  standard  of  probability,  i.e.,  that  the 
individual  shall  escape  a  defeat.  I  first  called  at- 
tention to  the  dynamic  of  the  neurosis  in  the 
"Neurotic  Disposition"  and  the  object  of  the 
present  work  is  to  present  it  in  a  more  profound 
and  extended  form.  The  purposeful  and  pro- 
found introspection,  therefore,  is  in  line  with  the 
neurosis,  even  though  in  philosophy,  psychology 
and  in  self-knowledge  it  has  produced  excellent 
fruit.  It  is  the  private  philosophy  of  the  neu- 
rotic which  fails  to  hit  the  mark  of  reality,  and 
whose  mania,  corrigible  by  analysis,  has  its  anal- 
og}^ in  the  "know  thyself"  of  the  sublime  philoso- 
phers. The  largely  incorrigible  delirium  of  the 
psychotics  brooding  and  phantastic  introspection, 
which  is  so  much  easier  to  comprehend  as  a  sys- 
tematized illusion  with  the  object  of  assuring 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  89 

self-esteem,  teaches  us  to  understand  the  delirium 
of  the  introspection  of  the  neurotic. 

The  neurotic's  striving  for  security,  his  very 
stronghold,  can  therefore  only  be  understood 
when  the  original,  contrary  factor  of  his  uncer- 
tainty is  likewise  taken  into  consideration.  Both 
are  the  result  of  an  antithetically  grouped  judg- 
ment which  has  come  to  depend  on  the  fictitious 
egotistic  ideal,  which  furnishes  to  this  judgment 
biased  "subjective"  values.  The  feeling  of  "se- 
curity" and  its  opposite  pole  of  "insecurity"  ar- 
ranged according  to  the  antithesis  of  "feeling 
inferiority"  and  "egotistic  ideal"  are  like  these 
latter  a  fictitious  pair  of  values,  a  psychic  for- 
mation of  which  Vaihinger  says  "that  the  real  in 
them  is  artificially  placed  there,  that  only  when 
taken  together  have  they  meaning  and  value, 
taken  singly,  however,  they  lead  through  their 
isolation  to  nonsense,  contradictions  and  illusion- 
ary  problems.  In  the  analysis  of  psychoneu- 
roses  it  always  becomes  obvious  that  this  antithe- 
sis resolves  itself  in  accordance  with  the  only  real 
"antithesis"  of  "man — woman,"  so  that  the  feel- 
ing of  inferiority,  uncertainty,  lowliness,  effemi- 
nacy, falls  on  one  side  of  the  table,  the  antithesis 
of  certainty,  superiority,  self-esteem,  manliness, 
on  the  other.  The  dynamics  of  the  neurosis  can 
therefore  be  regarded  (and  is  often  so  understood 
by  the  neurotic  because  of  its  irradiation  upon  his 


100  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

psyche)  as  if  the  patient  wished  to  change  from 
a  woman  to  a  man.  This  effect  yields  in  its  most 
highly  colored  form  the  picture  of  that  which  I 
have  called  the  "masculine  protest." 

The  strength  of  the  manly  element  in  the  idea 
of  cultural  perfection  as  well  as  more  particularly 
in  the  artificial  guiding  lines  of  neurotics  as  we 
find  it  in  the  wishes  and  actions,  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  our  patients,  in  their  attitude  toward 
the  objective  world,  in  their  preparations  for  life, 
in  every  trait  of  character,  in  every  physical  and 
psychical  gesture,  which  gives  the  impulse  to  the 
upward  movement  and  directs  the  line  of  life  up- 
ward, permits  us  to  divine  that  in  the  beginning 
of  psychical  development  a  deficiency  of  such 
manly  power  was  felt,  and  that  the  original  feel- 
ing of  inferiority  realized  by  the  constitutionally 
defective  child  was  estimated  as  feminine  in  con- 
formity with  this  antithesis.  No  matter  what 
was  at  the  foundation  of  the  feeling  of  infe- 
riority, when  the  strong  neurotic  stronghold  is 
introduced  through  the  setting  up  of  the  mas- 
culine fiction,  the  supposed  basis  of  the  childish 
uncertainty  and  the  uncertainty  itself  fall  under 
the  phenomena  which  are  considered  as  effemi- 
nate as  a  consequence  of  the  neurotic,  antithet- 
ical grouping.  The  feeling  of  insignificance,  of 
weakness,  of  anxiety  and  helplessness,  of  ill 
health,  of  deficiency,  of  pain,  etc.,  produces  in 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  101 

the  neurotic  actions  of  such  a  nature  that  he 
seems  to  be  compelled  to  set  up  a  defense  against 
effeminacy,  that  is  to  saj%  to  be  obliged  to  act  in 
a  manly  and  forceful  manner.  In  the  same  man- 
ner this  answer  follows,  the  affect-possibilities  of 
the  masculine  protest  react  against  every  degra- 
dation, against  the  feeling  of  uncertainty,  of  be- 
ing injured,  of  inferiority,  and  the  neurotic  indi- 
vidual draws  constantly  effective  guiding  lines 
for  his  volition,  action  and  thoughts  in  the  form 
of  traits  of  character  in  the  broad  chaotic  field  of 
his  soul,  in  order  not  to  miss  the  way  to  the 
heights,  in  order  to  make  his  security  complete. 
Usually  the  traits  of  character  tend  in  a  direct 
line  of  the  masculine  ideal  in  both  the  male  and 
the  female  patients,  but  the  neurotic  circuitous 
ways,  attacks  and  predispositions  to  attack  espe- 
cially following  the  decisive  defeat  whose  analysis 
and  arrangements  in  the  ensemble  reveals  the 
same  tendency  to  the  heightening  of  the  mascu- 
line ego-consciousness,  manifest  themselves  as  in 
accordance  with  the  above  given  expositions,  even 
though  from  an  outside  view  and  superficially 
considered  they  may  appear  to  be  timidity,  anx- 
iety, effeminacy,  and  may  be  regarded  as  flight  or 
retreat  from  the  world.  The  simple  question 
concerning  the  stability  of  the  far  fetched  expedi- 
ent in  the  form  of  a  neurotic  symptom  enables  us 
to  imderstand  that  in  these  latter  cases  it  is  not 


102  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

because  a  decision  has  been  reached,  but  because 
the  originally  constructed  imaginary  masculine 
goal  is  effective  now  as  it  was  before  and  that  a 
cultural  adaptation,  peace  and  contentment,  can- 
not be  maintained,  because  the  goal  is  set  too  high. 
Through  certain  uncertainties  of  the  child  con- 
cerning his  own  sex-role  the  masculine  element  in 
the  guiding  fiction  is  considerably  reenforced. 
In  fact  one  observes  that  children  retain  a  re- 
markable interest  for  differences  of  sexuality  in 
a  hidden  form.  The  similarity  of  dress  in  chil- 
dren in  the  first  years,  the  feminine  features  in 
small  boys,  and  masculine  in  girls,  certain  threats 
of  the  parents  as  "a  boy  will  change  himself  into 
a  girl"  reproaches  to  the  boy  that  he  is  like  a  girl, 
to  a  girl  that  she  is  like  a  boy,  may  still  increase 
this  uncertainty,  as  long  as  the  differences  in  the 
genital  organs  are  unknown.  But  even  where 
there  is  the  fullest  explanation,  doubt  may 
awaken  tlirough  anomalies  of  the  genital  organs 
in  erroneous  judgments,  which  may  be  retained 
and  emerge  constantly  in  later  life  in  the  antithet- 
ical picture  of  "masculine-feminine"  so  that  our 
original  statement  ^*^  that  the  doubt  of  his  own 
sex-role  is  at  the  foundation  of  the  neurotic  doubt 
needs  extension  only  in  one  direction,  i.e.,  that 
the  neurosis  holds  fast  to  this  condition  of  doubt 

10  "Psychic  Hemaphrodism  in  Life  and  in  the  Neurosis."  1.  c. 
and  the  later  publications. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  103 

in  the  patient  subsequently  as  a  security  against 
the  necessity  of  decadency,  in  order  to  construct 
the  "hesitating  attitude." 

The  longer  the  uncertainty  as  to  the  sex-role 
exists,  the  more  urgent  becomes  the  effort  and 
tentative  preparation  to  attain  the  masculine 
role.  Thus  originates  the  original  picture  of  the 
"masculine  protest"  which  has  as  aim  to  force  the 
one  in  whom  it  exists  under  all  circumstances  into 
the  seemingly  most  masculine  attitude,  or,  as  is 
the  case  with  girls  and  boys,  who  early  become 
neurotic,  to  prevent  set-backs  in  all  forms  by  neu- 
rotic expedients,  simultaneously,  however,  to 
build  up  directly  masculine  traits  of  character 
and  strong  affect-predisposition. 

The  fore-stage  of  the  knowledge  of  the  sex- 
role,  that  is  the  period  of  psychic  hermaphrodit- 
ism of  the  child  exists  generally.  Attention  has 
been  called  to  its  importance  by  Dessoir  and  my- 
self. That  this  stadium  with  its  strong  endeav- 
ors in  the  direction  of  the  masculine  guiding  line 
is  of  the  greatest  significance  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  neurosis  with  its  too  elevated  manly 
goal  and  its  expedients  for  gaining  security  was 
demonstrated  to  me  by  the  analysis  of  the  psy- 
choneurosis.  Goethe  proves  himself  to  be  a  good 
observer  and  connoisseur  of  nature  when  he  says 
in  Wilhelm  Meister's  Theatrical  Consignment, 
"Just  as  at  certain  periods  in  their  life,  children 


104  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

begin  to  pay  attention  to  the  differences  in  the  sex 
of  their  parents,  and  their  glances  through  the 
envelopes  which  conceal  these  secrets  bring  forth 
very  wonderful  emotions  in  their  nature,  so  it  was 
with  Willielm  in  this  discovery ;  he  was  more  quiet 
and  less  quiet  than  before,  thought  he  had  learned 
something  and  just  from  this  perceived  that  he 
knew  nothing." 

In  fact  one  finds  as  the  first  expression  of  this 
inexperience  and  its  depressing  reaction  upon  the 
psyche  an  enormous  amount  of  curiosity  and 
craving  for  knowledge  and  in  order  to  find  orien- 
tation in  life  notwithstanding  this  the  child  comes 
under  the  influence  of  the  guiding  line  which  im- 
pels him  to  act  as  though  he  must  know  every- 
thing. Should  he  happen  to  find  out  the  supe- 
riority of  the  manly  principle  in  our  society,  the 
guiding  model  becomes  masculine,  especially  if 
a  man,  the  father  appears  to  him  to  be  the  person 
with  knowledge. 

In  the  case  of  little  girls  peculiar  traits  of  char- 
acter which  become  especially  prominent  in  the 
neurosis  develop  when  they  try  to  hold  fast  to  the 
masculine  guiding  line.  The  feeling  of  having 
suffered  an  injury  has  just  as  much  weight  with 
them  as  for  boys  who  consider  themselves  female, 
so  that  they  put  all  their  interest  into  collecting 
proof  of  their  injury  and  building  up  their  ag- 
gression against  their  environment. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  105 

Imaginary  pictures  of  castration,  of  man 
changed  to  woman,  woman  to  man,  of  masculine 
forms  of  life,  emerge  in  the  analysis  as  indicators 
of  the  neurotic  psyche,  point  to  the  craving  for 
equality  with  man  and  permit  the  masculine  fic- 
tion to  reemerge  constantly  in  the  later  changes 
of  form  of  the  guiding  line.  These  neurotics  reg- 
ularly assume  an  attitude  toward  life  as  though 
they  had  suffered  an  injury,  or  as  though  they 
were  constantly  seeking  with  the  greatest  caution, 
to  avoid  a  loss. 

E.  H.  Meyer  says  in  the  "Indo-Germanic 
Myths"  (I.  S.  16),  "According  to  the  Atharva 
Veda  the  Gandharvs  (phallic  Dsemons)  consume 
the  testicles  of  boys  and  thus  transform  the  boys 
into  girls."  The  ideas  of  many  neurotics  in 
childhood  seem  to  have  assumed  this  and  similar 
forms  concerning  the  origination  of  the  two  sexes, 
as  if  from  thoughts  concerning  a  degradation 
which  has  been  suffered  and  which  assumes  the 
form  of  a  sexual  transformation  with  the  woman. 
The  immediate  psychical  result  is  then  as  a  rule 
more  acute  aggression  against  the  parents,  to 
whom  is  ascribed  the  blame  for  this  shortcoming. 

Fhes,  Halban,  Weininger,  and  before  them, 
among  others,  Schopenhauer  and  Krafft-Ebing, 
founded  the  psychic  hermaphroditism  on  the 
presence  of  a  hypothetical  male  and  female  sub- 
stance in  the  individual.     Our  concept  supposes 


106  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

only  the  antithesis  in  the  valuation  of  male  and 
female  as  it  actually  exists,  takes  into  account  the 
universality  of  the  antithetical  figurative  apper- 
ception-scheme "male-female"  and  deduces  from 
the  pressure  of  the  neurotically  reenforced  and 
heightened  egotistic  ideal  the  masculine  factor 
which  is  so  easily  discoverable.  The  latter  condi- 
tions also  the  emphasis  of  the  feeling  of  inferior- 
ity of  the  individual  by  comprehending  it  in  a 
picture  which  belongs  to  the  feminine  role  in 
order  to  react  against  it  with  the  character  traits, 
the  impulses,  and  preparations  of  the  masculine 
protest.  The  findings  published  by  me  have 
been  taken  up  in  a  series  of  the  latest  works  from 
the  Freudian  school.  A  further  pursuance  of 
the  matter  leads  irrevocably  to  a  realization  of  the 
untenableness  of  the  libido-theory,  to  a  doing 
away  with  the  sexual  etiology  and  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  neurotic  sexual  conduct  as  a  fic- 
tion. 

If  the  masculine  protest  has  thus  become  clear 
to  us  as  an  expedient  of  the  psyche  by  means  of 
which  it  attains  full  security,  and  strives  to  bring 
itself  in  conformity  with  the  guiding  egotistic 
idea,  it  still  remains  to  present  to  view  the  formal 
change  of  this  guiding  line  as  it  takes  place  every 
time  contradictions  become  apparent  in  it  and  the 
purpose  of  neurotic  efforts  to  maintain  superior- 
ity is  jeopardized.     This  is  the  case  when  reality 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  107 

threatens  the  egotistic  ideal  with  degradation. 
The  neurotic  in  this  case  will  cling  more  tena- 
ciously to  his  idea  than  the  normal  person.  The 
more  deeply,  however,  he  becomes  entangled  in 
the  reassuring  neurosis,  the  more  likely  is  he, 
being  assisted  by  memories  and  warnings,  to  an- 
ticipate an  injury,  to  construct  new  neurotic  cir- 
cuitous ways,  to  apply  further  neurotic  expedi- 
ents for  security  which  for  a  problem  under 
consideration  contain  neither  a  fiat  nor  a  nega- 
tion, or  more  likely  both  at  once. 

His  psychic  hermaphroditic  character  will  also 
manifest  itself  in  the  circumstance  that  he  yields, 
becomes  submissive,  effeminate,  while  his  efforts 
at  the  same  time  reveal  a  pressure  towards  a 
tendency  to  dominate,  toward  manliness,  with  the 
result  that  he  makes  no  progress,  because  for 
every  step  he  takes  forward  he  takes  one  back- 
ward, and  sometimes  even  expresses  this  proce- 
dure in  pantomime.  In  the  same  way  the  fear  of 
blame,  of  punishment,  of  shame,  in  short  of  being 
"down"  may  alter  his  straightforward  manly 
traits.  The  construction  of  the  neurotic  feelings 
of  guilt,  of  congenital  criminal  instincts,  of  rough- 
ness, of  cruelty,  and  egotism  bear  fear-inspiring 
signs  in  the  same  ways  as  the  feelings  of  bashf ul- 
ness,  cowardice,  dullness  and  laziness  when  these 
latter  are  brought  neurotically  to  expression. 
The  bad,  intractable  child,  the  years  of  wild  oats, 


108  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

and  certain  forms  of  psychoses,  frequently  the 
fore-stage  of  the  "developed  neurosis,"  show  us 
the  masculine  protest  in  a  high,  rectilinear  devel- 
opment. Their  performances  are  produced  di- 
rectly by  the  surge  of  the  masculine  protest  which 
has  become  an  end  in  itself  and  which  represents 
wholly  and  entirely  the  reenforced  guiding  fic- 
tion. 

Our  theoretical  presentation  of  the  neurotic 
psyche  would  be  incomplete,  if  it  did  not  also 
enter  upon  the  subject  of  the  nature  and  signifi- 
cance of  dreams.  I  can  in  this  place  advance  no 
well  founded  theory  of  dreams,  to  say  nothing  of 
a  complete  one.  But  for  various  reasons  I  am 
obliged  to  communicate  all  the  observations  and 
findings  which  have  rendered  possible  the  study 
of  dreams  in  the  practical  part  of  the  work, 

Freud's  interpretation  of  dreams  was  perhaps 
the  greatest  step  in  advance  which  has  been  made 
in  our  understanding  of  the  psychology  of  the 
neuroses.  And  yet  I  cannot  regard  it  as  the  final 
step  in  our  knowledge  of  dreams.  In  the  course 
of  an  observation  of  dreams  extending  over  many 
years  of  healthy  and  unhealthy  persons  I  have 
arrived  at  the  following  result : 

1.  The  dream  is  a  sketch-like  reflection  of  psy- 
chic attitudes  and  indicates  for  the  investigator 
the  characteristic  manner  in  which  the  dreamer 
takes  his  attitude  in  regard  to  a  certain  problem. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  109 

It  coincides  therefore,  with  the  form  of  the  fic- 
titious guiding  line,  yields  only  efforts  of  pre- 
meditation, tentative  preparations  of  an  aggres- 
sive attitude  and  can  therefore  be  utilized  to  great 
advantage  for  the  purpose  of  understanding  these 
individual  preparations,  predispositions,  and  the 
guiding  fiction  itself. 

2.  In  the  same  way  there  comes  to  light  in  the 
dream,  in  a  more  or  less  abstract  manner,  the 
dreamer's  attitude  towards  the  world  about  him 
as  well  as  his  traits  of  character  "  and  their  neu- 
rotic abnormalities.  The  abstraction  in  dream- 
thought  is  necessitated  by  the  craving  for  secur- 
ity, which  seeks  to  solve  a  problem  by  simplifying 
it  and  by  referring  it  to  a  less  complete  infantile 
stage.  This  it  accomplishes  in  a  manner  which 
is  true  of  thinking  generally,  except  that  it  is 
more  profound.  It  makes  use  too  of  memory, 
and  in  a  figurative  analogical  manner,  through 
the  hallucinatory  awakening  of  memories  of  a 
fear-inspiring  or  energ\^-exciting  sort.  The  ex- 
clusion of  reality  by  sleep  favors  the  abstract 
thinking  in  di-eams,  as  correction  is  to  a  great 
part  prevented  by  the  insensibility  of  the  sense 
organs.  To  this  circumstance  as  well  as  to  the 
absence  of  a  conscious  positing  of  purpose  in 

11  G.  Chr.  Lichtenberg  already  wrote — If  people  were  to  relate 
accurately  their  dreams,  their  character  cou'd  be  read  from  them 
sooner  than  from  the  face. 


110  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

dream  thought  is  due  the  incomprehensibility  of 
the  contents  of  dreams,  which  only  receive  mean- 
ing when  taken  as  symbols  of  life,  as  an  "as  if" 
for  which  the  interpretation  has  to  supply  the 
real  aggression. 

3.  These  facts  which  still  remain  to  be  proved 
as  well  as  the  form  of  expression  of  the  dream  in 
an  *'as  if"  ("It  seemed  to  me  as  if")  reveal  to  us 
the  nature  of  the  dream  as  a  factor  in  which  those 
tentative  efforts  and  tasks  become  manifest  by 
which  caution  seeks  to  gain  the  mastery  of  a  situ- 
ation in  the  future.  In  the  dreams  of  neurotic 
persons  it  is  possible,  therefore,  to  observe  more 
distinctly  than  in  others  the  neurotic  methods  of 
apperception  which  work  according  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  an  antithesis,  the  emphasized  feeling  of 
inferiority  and  the  guiding  egotistic  idea,  or  to 
divine  them  in  connection  with  the  mental  life  of 
these  persons. 

4<.  The  tendency  of  the  neurotically  reenforced 
guiding  idea  will  be  revealed  regularly  in  the 
dreams  of  a  neurotic  person,  usually  in  the  form 
of  a  striving  to  attain  a  position  "above"  or  the 
masculine  protest.  The  feminine  or  "under" 
base  of  operation  is  always  indicated. 

5.  Repeated  dreams  of  the  same  content  and 
dreams  of  childhood  reveal  the  fictitious  guiding 
line  most  distinctly.  Because  they  construct 
themselves  upon  a  completed  scheme  or  one  that 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  111 

is  in  a  condition  to  be  used  which  is  erected  and 
sustained  by  the  neurotic  final  purpose.  The 
various  di'eams  of  a  night  indicate  this  attempt 
at  various  solutions  and  are  a  characteristic  of  the 
feeling  of  extreme  uncertainty.  The  so-called 
censor  of  dreams  by  means  of  which  is  accom- 
plished a  concealment  or  disguising  of  actual  facts 
by  distortion,  reveals  itself  as  the  craving  for 
security  which  accomplishes  the  formal  change 
of  the  fiction  in  the  neurosis  as  well  as  in  the 
dream,  and  seeks  to  avoid  by  a  circuitous  way 
a  contradiction  in  the  mascuHne  guiding  line. 
Other  disfigurations  are  inherent  in  the  nature  of 
the  more  abstract  dream  thinking  and  in  its  char- 
acter as  a  mere  reflection. 

6.  The  symbohsms  and  expedients  of  analogy 
in  dreams  are  radiations  containing  forms  and 
contents  of  dynamic  affect  reenforcements,  their 
word-pictures,  so  to  speak.  They  are  a  psychic 
superstructure  over  a  compromise  between  a 
psychic  situation  and  a  biased,  usually  falsified, 
sophistically  applied  souvenir  which  must  sup- 
ply the  resonance  required  by  the  idea. 

The  fulfilhnent  of  infantile  wishes  in  dreams 
asserted  by  Freud  is  solved  by  me  by  regarding 
it  as  the  effect  of  premeditation  to  attain  security, 
whereby  memories  grouped  together  with  a  view 
to  a  certain  effect  are  taken  as  helps  in  the  form 
of  mementoes,  a  psychic  expedient  which  also 


112  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

dominates  all  logical  thinking,  and  which  are  not 
the  libidinous  or  sexual  wishes  of  childhood. 

The  only  difference  between  the  neurosis  and 
normality  with  its  dreams  and  its  delusions  is  the 
heightened  tendency  brought  about  by  the  re- 
enforced  fiction,  to  choose  those  memories  which 
have  been  made  effective,  in  short  the  neurotic 
perspective, — the  neurotic  does  not  suffer  from 
reminiscences,  he  makes  them. 

If  this  point  of  comparison,  an  absolutely  nec- 
essary one  for  orientation  and  certainty  in  action, 
becomes  once  fixed,  a  point  which  is  in  proportion 
to  the  degree  with  which  the  feeling  of  inferiority 
weighs  upon  the  child,  this  point  must  for  the 
above  given  reasons,  from  the  necessity  of  mak- 
ing comparisons,  and  on  account  of  the  adjust- 
ments which  take  place  in  childhood,  become 
stable,  hypostasized  and  regarded  as  holy,  as  di- 
vine. On  the  one  hand  are  the  real  conditions 
and  activities  of  the  subject;  on  the  other  hand 
are  the  compensatory  result  of  the  feeling  of  in- 
feriority, the  Deity,  the  guiding  idea  apperceived 
in  the  form  of  a  person  or  an  event.  This  latter 
ideal  point  operates  now  as  though  all  directing 
forces  were  contained  in  it.  Thus  first  arises 
from  an  organic,  objective  life  that  which  we  call 
soul  life,  the  psyche. 

Every  step  the  child  takes  directs  itself  accord- 
ing to  this  system  and  is  in  turn  directed  by  it. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  113 

There  is  a  continuous  weighing,  feeling,  prepara- 
tion, formation  of  predispositions  and  measuring 
on  the  ideal  which  brings  the  child  forward  in 
his  development.  He  measures  himself  with  men 
as  well  as  with  women,  whereby  the  contrast  be- 
tween the  sexes  furnishes  a  guide  and  produces  a 
psychic  adjustment  in  accordance  with  a  contrast 
in  a  certain  sense  in  a  hostile,  evasive  direction 
in  the  masculine  line.  In  the  neurotically  dis- 
posed child,  the  compensatory  craving  for  secur- 
ity heightened  by  the  feeling  of  uncertainty  is 
responsible,  through  the  over-stimulation  of  at- 
tention in  this  direction  for  the  abstract,  neu- 
rotically reenforced  directing  lines  to  the  high- 
flown  goal  of  the  masculine  protest.  And  the 
more  sharply  defined  understanding  of  the  con- 
trast of  the  sexes  produces  earlier  and  more  pro- 
foundly the  preparatory  attitudes  toward  the 
opposite  sex,  the  more  so  when,  as  is  the  case  with 
neurotics,  the  exclusively  masculine  appraisal  of 
the  ideal  reflects  upon  his  feeling  of  inferiority 
causing  it  to  appear  feminine. 

The  nature  of  home  training  carries  with  it  the 
result  that  in  his  first  attempts  at  formulating 
an  ideal  of  personahty,  the  child  pictures  to  him- 
self traits  belonging  to  the  most  important  mem- 
ber of  the  family,  usually  the  father.  Neuroti- 
cally disposed  children  who  in  contrasting  them- 
selves with  the  father  experience  an  accentuation 


114  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  their  feeling  of  inferiority,  immediately  hit 
upon  preparatory  expedients  and  construct  de- 
vices for  combat  as  though  they  were  obliged  to 
demonstrate  their  superiority  to  the  father.  In 
these  preparatory  efforts  is  contained  also  the 
attitude  to  the  opposite  sex,  in  so  far  as  the  intel- 
lect of  the  child  does  not  make  a  mistake  in  regard 
to  his  own  sexual  role,  and  many  of  his  predispo- 
sitions which  are  to  come  into  effectiveness  later 
in  life  are  tentatively  practiced  in  a  playful  man- 
ner upon  members  of  the  family  of  the  opposite 
sex,  in  the  waking  state  or  in  hallucinations,  or 
in  his  dreams. 

That  along  with  this  the  mother  serves  in  a 
certain  sense  as  a  model  for  the  boy  has  long  been 
known  and  has  been  mentioned  by  Nietzsche. 
The  boundary  itself  which  the  child  sets  for  him- 
self is  also  a  matter  of  experiment  for  him.  His 
wishes  are,  if  he  be  neurotically  disposed,  bound- 
less. Discontented  because  of  the  too  great  dis- 
tance to  his  egotistic  ideal,  he  even  goes  so  far  as 
to  entertain  sexual  wishes  in  regard  to  the  mother, 
a  proof  of  how  boundless  is  the  "will  to  power." 
A  fixation  of  a  sexual  relation,  however,  must 
have  other  grounds  than  chance  wishes  in  the  field 
of  boundless  aspirations.  The  desire  of  the  boy 
extends  to  other  female  persons  with  whom  he  is 
brought  into  contact.  The  picture  if  then  again 
similar  to  that  of  possession  "to  wish  to  possess 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  115 

the  mother"  becomes  a  sign  of  his  discontent,  a 
symbol  of  his  boundless  aspirations,  of  his  obsti- 
nacy and  his  fear  of  other  women.  Now  in  later 
life  a  "fixation"  on  the  mother  from  similar  con- 
stellations may  result,  not  however,  because  the 
wish  was  heretofore  libidinous.  For  it  is  a  mat- 
ter of  indifference  of  what  nature  the  real  relation 
to  the  mother  was — the  psyche  of  the  neurotic 
will  always  utilize  it  in  some  way  for  the  purpose 
of  furnishing  him  security. 

The  motive  of  the  discontent  interests  us  here 
above  all.  It  originates  from  the  feeling  of  hav- 
ing suffered  an  injury  and  it  is  obvious  that  the 
child  waits  fulfillment  of  every  aspiration  in  his 
"growing  up."  According  to  the  psychology  of 
the  "as  if"  he  may  expect  his  cure  from  the  de- 
velopment of  his  hair,  his  teeth,  his  genital  organs. 
His  experience  with  his  teeth  serves  to  give  him 
the  impression  that  a  thing  may  grow  again. 
The  tooth-motive  plays  a  frequent  role  in  the 
dreams  and  phantasies  with  girls  in  order  to  en- 
able them  to  cling  to  their  hope  of  becoming  a 
man,  with  boys  to  give  hope  to  their  longing  for 
a  more  complete  manhood.  If  a  tooth  is  pulled, 
a  milk  tooth,  a  new,  stronger  one  forms.  The 
pulling  out  of  teeth,  therefore,  symbolizes  in  the 
dream  the  wish  to  become  a  man. 

Neurotic  men  like  women  are  full  of  the  feeling 
of  having  suffered  an  injury  and  their  whole  life 


116  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

is  spent  in  the  effort  at  enlarging  their  spheres  of 
influence.  In  order  to  attain  this,  indeed,  in 
order  even  to  assume  their  attitude  toward  this 
effort,  they  are  obhged  to  keep  up  constantly 
their  discontent,  so  that  they  will  find  nourish- 
ment for  it  and  proof  of  their  neglect  in  every  sit- 
uation by  examining  it,  rearranging  it  or  arbitra- 
rily changing  it,  but  always  keeping  in  mind  the 
fictitious  guiding  goal.  With  great  regularity, 
I  found  in  them  the  apperception  according  to  the 
antithetical  scheme  "male-female"  by  means  of 
which  they  sought  and  classified  all  their  experi- 
ences. This  scheme  according  to  which  they  wish 
to  arrange  the  cosmic  picture  is  usually  overlayed 
by  an  antithetical  picture  of  the  large  and  small 
masculine  genitalia.  It  is  a  frequent  and  char- 
acteristic discovery  that  a  finer  sensibility  devel- 
ops at  points  of  the  body  which  by  nature  are 
inferior,  whose  excitability  sometimes  takes  the 
character  of  pleasurable  sensations.  I  have  de- 
scribed this  phenomenon  in  the  "Studie  uber  Or- 
ganmin  derwertigheit"  (1907,  Wien  und  Berlin) 
and  refer  them  to  the  compensatory  adjustment 
which  has  come  into  play  during  the  individual's 
experience  in  his  struggle  for  existence  where  the 
organs  or  parts  of  organs  in  question  were  men- 
aced. These  compensatory,  now  higher  valued 
portions  of  an  inferior  organ — inferior  after  they 
had  suffered  an  injury  in  their  ascendancy — are 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  117 

really  in  a  certain  sense  protective  adjustments, 
although  frequently  they  do  not  prove  of  worth. 
Because,  however,  their  technique  has  become  dif- 
ferent and  no  longer  keeps  pace  with  the  nearly 
normal  organ,  the  psychic  phenomena  connected 
with  these  organs  are  striking  and  deviate  from 
normality.  This  is  the  same  albeit  more  minute 
variation  based  upon  somatic  inferiority  of  which 
I  have  spoken  in  the  biology,  i.e.,  explanation 
of  variation,  refinement  and  decline  of  an  or- 
gan. ^^ 

In  this  way,  for  instance,  the  sense  of  taste  has 
evolved  as  a  security-serving  apparatus,  in  the 
realm  of  the  nutritive  organ,  but  along  with  this 
also  the  pleasure  sense  apparatus  which  must  now 
guarantee  the  continuance  of  nutrition  as  well  as 
the  proper  choice  of  food. 

The  variation  from  the  type  is  brought  about 
by  the  "compensation  tendency"  which  is  already 
introduced  in  the  germ  plasm. 

The  environment  (in  a  broader  sense  the 
milieu)  dominates  the  "germ  plasm"  and  in  this 
manner  is  explained  the  prompt  uniformity  of 
reaction,  viz.  "inferiority  plus  compensatory  se- 

12  Thus  the  "value  of  an  organ"  likewise  becomes  a  symbol  in 
life's  current  in  which  are  reflected  the  past,  present,  future  as 
well  as  the  fictive  goal  in  like  manner  as  is  the  case  with  the  indi- 
vidual's make-up  or  with  the  neurotic  symptoms.  The  idea  of 
the  "symbolic  in  a  person's  appearance"  is  not  a  new  one.  It 
has  been  expressed  by  Porta,  Gall  and  Carus. 


118  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

curity,"  through  a  change  in  the  conditions  of  life 
in  the  broadest  sense,  that  is  to  say,  all  particular 
members  of  a  single  species  vary  in  the  same  way 
when  the  same  change  in  their  mode  of  life  takes 
place.  In  regard  to  human  society  one  must 
keep  constantly  in  mind,  more  so  than  in  the  ani- 
mal and  vegetable  kingdoms — that  the  demands 
on  the  single  individual  vary  to  a  considerable 
degree  one  from  the  other,  both  quantitatively 
and  qualitatively,  so  that  their  somatic  inferiori- 
ties and  the  compensatory  adjustments  resulting 
therefrom  differ  very  widely.  And  their  vari- 
ations would  be  still  more  striking  were  it  not  for 
the  fact  that  the  human  psyche  has  thrust  itself 
into  the  circle  of  correlations  and  compensations 
with  such  preponderance  as  the  principal  organ 
of  adjustive  security.^^  Now  the  standard  tend- 
encies to  security  are  no  longer  variations  in  the 
organs  themselves,  but  psychic  peculiarities. 
There  always  continues  to  exist  a  connection 

13  The  psychic  adjustment  of  man  with  its  preparations  and 
peculiar  characteristics  simulates  so  very  closely  the  adjustive 
variations  in  the  animal  sphere,  that  children,  neurotics,  poets  and 
even  speech  itself  utilize  this  analogy  for  the  purpose  of  eluci- 
dating by  way  of  comparison  a  psychic  gesture,  a  trait  of  char- 
acter, a  type  of  preparedness  by  means  of  a  representation  of  an 
animal,  as  is  the  case  for  instance  in  the  designing  of  escutcheons, 
in  poetic  similes,  in  fables  and  parable.  See  also  Erckmann's 
Chatrain,  the  famous  Dr.  Malthieu,  Goethe's  Reinecke  Fox,  paint- 
ing and  caricatures. 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  119 

which  can  be  sufficiently  proved,  and  we  are  able 
to  infer  from  somatic  variations  stigmata  and 
signs  of  degeneration  of  the  same,  that  there  has 
taken  place  an  increased  compensatory  adjust- 
ment of  the  brain  and  more  acentuated  tendencies 
to  obtain  security.  The  nature  and  tendency  of 
all  psychic  processes  are  full  of  the  efforts  of  pre- 
caution and  defensive  preparations  for  gaining 
superiority  so  that  one  cannot  avoid  the  conclu- 
sion that  what  we  term  soul,  spirit,  reason  and 
understanding  are  for  us  abstractions  of  those 
effective  guiding  lines,  to  which  human  beings 
reach  out  beyond  the  sphere  of  bodily  sensations, 
striving  to  overstep  their  limitations  in  order  to 
gain  the  mastery  of  a  portion  of  the  world  and  to 
secure  themselves  against  threatened  dangers. 
The  imperfection  of  the  independently  acting 
organ  is  thus  magically  elevated  to  that  security 
which  is  furnished  by  knowledge,  understanding 
and  foresight. 

In  the  animal  kingdom  the  function  performed 
in  men  by  the  understanding  is  performed  by  a 
finely  adjusted  technical  apparatus.  The  fine 
scent  of  the  dog  becomes  superfluous  or  is  brought 
under  man's  service,  the  highly  specialized  sense 
of  taste,  which  teaches  cattle  to  avoid  poisonous 
plants,  is  supplied  in  man  by  the  understanding 
eye. 


120  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

But  it  is  the  same  tendency  which  continues 
through  eternity  the  struggle  of  the  ancestors  to 
facilitate  the  preservation  of  life  by  more  finely 
graded,  sharply  differentiated  organs  as  well  as 
by  more  refined  expedients  of  the  psyche. 

And  thus  it  is  permitted  to  us,  to  regard  this 
sort  of  more  sensitive  peripheral  apparatus,  its 
special  physiognomy  and  mimic  as  a  sign  of  an 
imperfection  of  some  organ,  as  a  trace  which  be- 
trays a  transmitted  somatic  defect.  This  is  also 
true  of  the  extraordinary  development  of  the 
organs  of  taste  in  man,  for  the  greater  sensi- 
bility to  stimuli  of  the  lips  and  mucous  membrane 
of  the  mouth,  with  which  there  is  usually  asso- 
ciated a  more  exacting  state  of  the  gums,  ali- 
mentary canal,  and  stomach. 

Physiognomically  the  j)icture  of  the  more  in- 
ferior mouth  is  represented  in  the  form  of  more 
mobile,  thicker  or  thinner  lips,  usually  associated 
with  slight  deformities  of  the  lips,  of  the  tongue 
(lingua  scrotallis  Schmidt),  of  the  gums,  with 
which  are  often  associated  signs  of  degeneration 
of  these  parts,  enlarged  tonsils  or  of  the  whole 
status  lymphaticus.  At  times,  it  is  true,  all 
higher  development  in  the  sense  of  a  tendency  to 
compensation  is  wanting  in  the  presence  of  an 
inferiority,  even  the  hyperasthesia.  Reflex 
anomalies  are  quite  common,  sometimes  exagger- 
ation, sometimes  diminution  of  the  pharyngeal 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  121 

reflex;  along  with  defects  of  childhood,  one  ob- 
serves a  greater  occupation  with  the  mouth,  as 
touching  of  the  mouth,  thumb  sucking,  tenden- 
cies to  put  everything  into  the  mouth,  vomiting. 
Along  with  this,  good  digestion  is  usually  present 
in  so  far  as  this  is  not  prevented  by  other  coexist- 
ing somatic  defects. 

But  the  evil,  the  deprivation  and  the  pain 
which  from  the  cradle  on  are  the  fate  of  the  child 
with  an  inferior  alimentary  tract,  awake  in  him 
at  the  same  time  a  feeling  of  inferiority,  of  having 
suffered  an  injury  and  of  uncertainty  and  force 
the  constitutionally  predisposed  child  to  a  resort 
to  Active  expedients.  The  over-strongly  devel- 
oped, precocious,  egotistic  ideal  includes  within 
itself  also  fictitious  goals  of  over-gratifications 
which  reality  can  never  satisfy.  The  attention 
of  such  children  is  directed  after  the  manner  of  a 
compulsory  idea  to  all  problems  of  nutrition  and 
their  sublimation  (Nietzsche).  The  deprivation 
of  a  delicacy  releases  in  them  entirely  different 
emotions  and  actions  than  we  would  expect. 
Their  sense  turns  to  the  kitchen,  their  play  and 
the  infantile  choice  of  vocation  turn  on  the  phan- 
tasy of  procuring  nutrition,  to  be  cook  or  candy- 
maker.  The  importance  of  money  as  a  means  to 
power  dawns  upon  them  earlier  and  more  forci- 
bly, as  well  as  the  sense  of  greed  and  economy. 
Stereotypies  and  pedantries  in  eating  are  often 


122  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

revealed,  courses  of  action  according  to  a  princi- 
ple such  as  the  best  is  to  be  put  into  the  mouth 
first  or  last,  the  impatient  preferring  the  first 
practice,  the  cautious  and  avaricious  the  latter. 
Idiosyncrasies  against  certain  foods,  refusal  of 
food,  hasty  swallowing,  are  often  adhered  to  as 
traits  of  obstinacy  and  show  the  application  of 
the  problem  of  nutrition  as  an  aggression  against 
the  parents.     Aside  from  the  organic  diseases  of 
later  life  which  go  with  an  inferior  alimentary 
apparatus,  and  among  which  I  have  emphasized 
ulcer  of  the  stomach,  appendicitis,  cancer,  dia- 
betes, liver  and  gall  bladder  disease,  there  is  mani- 
fested in  the  neurosis  a  stronger  participation  and 
frequent  employment  of  functional  disturbances 
of  the  digestive  tract.     Its  intimate  relation  to 
the  psyche  is  reflected  in  many  neurotic  and  psy- 
chotic symptoms.     I  believe  I  am  on  the  track  of 
a  special  expedient  of  this  sort,  without  being 
able  to  present  conclusive  facts.     A  number  of 
neurotic  symptoms,  such  as  erythrophobia,  neu- 
rotic obstipation  and  cohc,  asthma,  probably  also 
vertigo,  vomiting,  headache,  and  migraine  stand 
in  some  sort  of  relation,  which  is  as  yet  not  en- 
tirely clear  to  me,  with  a  voluntary  but  uncon- 
sciously cooperating  activity  of  anus-contraction 
("cramp'*  of  the  other  authors)   (spasms  of  sig- 
moid flexure,  Holzknecht,  Singer)  and  that  of 
abdominal  pressure,  symbolic  acts  which  are  ac- 


THE  ACCENTUATED  FICTION  123 

complished  through  the  domination  of  the  reen- 
forced  fiction. 

Acquisitiveness  and  greed  for  gold  and  power 
I  found  strikingly  in  the  foreground  and  as  essen- 
tial factors  in  the  egotistic  ideal  of  these  indi- 
viduals. 


PRACTICAL  PART 


i 


CHAPTER  I 

AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  CRUELTY,  THE 
DEROGATORY  CRITIQUE  OF  THE  NEUROTIC, 
NEUROTIC  APPERCEPTION,  SENILE  NEUROSES, 
CHANGES  IN  THE  FORM  AND  INTENSITY  OF 
THE  FICTION.  SOMATIC  JARGON  ( ORGAN- 
JARGON ) 

I  WISH  to  speak  first  of  those  traits  of  charac- 
ter which  may  be  demonstrated  with  a  certain 
regularity  in  all  nem'otics,  and  which  reach  ex- 
pression in  the  patient's  striving  with  great 
eagerness,  directly  or  circuitously,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  by  means  of  purposive  thinking 
and  acting,  or  through  an  especial  arrangement 
of  symptoms,  towards  gi'eater  possession,  to- 
wards a  heightening  of  his  power  and  influence, 
towards  a  degradation  and  belittling  of  others. 
All  these  forms  of  self-interest  are  most  often 
found  to  coexist,  and  it  is  only  after  a  better 
insight  that  one  recognizes  the  mighty  prepon- 
derance of  those  evasions  by  means  of  which  the 
patient  deceives  himself  and  his  environment. 
He  even  deceives  also  science. 

While  playing,  for  instance,  the  role  of  unsel- 

127 


128  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

fishness,  one  finds  again  and  again  in  his  attacks, 
in  his  neurosis,  moreover  in  the  end  result  gained 
by  means  of  the  latter,  that  exaggerated  eager- 
ness of  which  we  have  spoken  in  the  beginning : — 
He  thus  arouses  the  impression  of  a  double-ego, 
of  one  suffering  from  a  splitting  of  consciousness, 
and  whereas  a  fictitious  goal  permits  him  to  ob- 
serve secretly  more  rigidly  than  does  the  normal 
person  the  scheme  of  avarice,  envy,  desire  for 
mastery,  malice,  disputatiousness,  and  desire  to 
please  (coquetry),  he  is  compelled  in  the  open 
(perhaps  also  on  account  of  his  desire  to  please) 
to  play  the  role  of  the  benefactor  and  patron,  of 
the  pacifier  and  unselfish  saint.  Not  that  this 
play  is  usually  without  disastrous  results,  some- 
what hke  Gregor  Werles'  truth — fanaticism  in 
Ibsen's  "Wild  Duck."  One  cannot  estimate 
strongly  enough  the  neurotic's  mania  to  desire 
possession  of  everything,  his  eagerness  to  wish  to 
be  the  first  one — cannot  be  over-stated — even 
though  the  obvious  traits  of  character  furnish  the 
most  contradictory  picture.  What  really  drives 
the  patient  onward  is  the  overweening  desire  for 
absolute  power;  and  inasmuch  as  his  ego-con- 
sciousness takes  offense  at  many  of  his  means — 
inasmuch  as  the  power  of  others  may  prevent  his 
triumph,  he  conceals  the  hindering  traits  of  char- 
acter from  himself  and  others,  and  having  full  in- 
sight into  his  hostile  impulses  and  their  unpopu- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       129 

larity,  he  allows  himself  to  be  guided  in  the  open 
in  his  conscious  activities  by  the  ideal  of  virtue. 
Notwithstanding  this,  however,  his  heightened 
aggressive  tendency  betrays  itself — namely  in  the 
dreams  in  uncontrolled  acts,  in  his  attitude, 
mimicry  and  gesture — and  in  that  psychic  being 
("Geschehen")  the  expression  for  which  is  the 
neurosis. 

Concerning  the  question  of  transmissibility  of 
such  characteristics,  yes,  also  their  antagonistic 
arrangement,  there  as  a  rule  develops  that  they 
have  been  acquired  as  secondary  guiding  princi- 
ples after  the  pattern  of  the  father,  the  mother, 
or  representative  persons  and  are  in  nowise  in- 
herited. The  neurotic  psyche  finds  it  in  its  own 
or  in  some  representative  material,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  which  the  "double  play" — the  cleft  con- 
sciousness of  society — is  utilized  in  many  cases. 
It  is  then,  however,  the  device  of  the  neurosis,  to 
conceal  and  change  those  hostile  aggressive  traits 
which  are  frequently  unsuitable  for  the  fictitious 
purpose  of  obtaining  a  heightening  of  the  ego- 
consciousness — and  to  obtain  the  latter  goal 
through  a  more  intensive  utilization  of  artifices — 
often  by  means  of  contrasting  characteristics  and 
neurotic  symptoms.  One  readily  becomes  con- 
vinced that  the  generosity  of  such  patients  obeys 
the  same  goal  of  the  "will  to  power"  which  the 
patient   strives   to   approach   also   through   the 


130  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

heightening  of  his  aggressive  tendency,  his  avarice 
and  thriftiness. 

One  of  my  patients  who  came  under  my  obser- 
vation on  account  of  stammering  and  depressive 
states,  permitted  to  appear  in  his  environment  a 
detection  only  of  his  generosity.  One  day  he 
made  a  voluntary  bequest  to  a  certain  institute, 
and  told  me  this  story  with  an  apparently  directly 
associated  statement  that  he  felt  unusually  de- 
pressed that  day.  Along  with  this  his  stammer- 
ing likewise  became  more  pronounced.  The  ex- 
aggerated state  of  his  neurosis  showed  itself  to  be 
a  result  of  his  generosity  as  result  of  which  he 
feels  himself  degraded  and  one  is  justified  in  ex- 
pecting a  revelation  of  the  real  working  of  this 
individual  in  further  acts,  thoughts  and  dreams 
as  running  with  the  developing  neurotic  symp- 
toms— not  because  he  has  repressed  his  avari- 
ciousness  or  a  corresponding  sexual  impulse — but 
because  he  has  deviated  too  far  from  his  goal — 
namely,  to  increase  his  possessions.  He  must 
therefore  do  something  which  will  bring  him  back 
to  it.  He  tells  me  further,  "It  was  already  far 
after  the  dinner  hour.  I  felt  very  hungry,  and 
besides  a  friend  awaited  me  in  a  restaurant  where 
we  were  to  dine  together.  I  had  to  walk  there- 
fore the  (long)  distance  to  that  place.  My 
friend  still  waited.  After  dinner  I  felt  somewhat 
better."     This  means  that  he  began  at  once  to 


/ 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       131 

save  again  and  made  the  journey  on  foot,  not- 
withstanding hunger,  depression  and  rendezvous. 
Incidentally,  he  was  able  to  let  the  friend  wait, 
which  is  with  many  neurotics  the  concealed  mode 
of  asserting  their  desire  for  dominancy. 

The  very  first  manifestation,  actions  and  com- 
munications of  the  patient  in  the  presence  of  the 
physician,  frequently  contain  the  most  important 
of  the  disease  mechanism  and  character  develop- 
ment. This  is  so  because  the  patient  is  as  yet  not 
in  possession  of  cautiousness  in  the  presence  of 
the  physician.  As  the  above  quoted  patient  in- 
troduced himself  to  me,  he  told  me  casually,  that 
his  father  was  not  well  to  do,  and  that  he  was 
unable  to  make  great  sacrifices  for  the  treatment. 
After  a  certain  time,  there  came  of  necessity  to 
light  that  he  deceived  me  in  this  respect  in  order 
to  obtain  a  smaller  charge.  He  showed  himself 
to  be  avaricious  also  in  many  other  respects,  but 
at  the  same  time  he  endeavored  to  deceive  both 
himself  and  others  in  this  respect.  Both  of  these 
traits  were  also  possessed  by  the  father,  and  our 
patict  was  taught  stinginess  by  the  latter  with 
special  stress.  He  was  often  told  "money  is 
might,  for  money  everything  can  be  had."  Thus 
it  could  not  be  avoided  that  our  patient,  who  was 
already  in  childhood  very  ambitious  and  tyranni- 
cal, having  later  fallen  into  an  uncertain  situa- 
tion and  believing  that  he  could  not  reach  the  pa- 


132  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ternal  standard,  through  direct  means,  took 
refuge  under  the  pressure  of  his  ambitiousness,  in 
the  device  to  convince  the  father  of  his  utter  help- 
lessness and  of  the  other  failures  of  his  educa- 
tional plans,  by  retaining  this  childhood  defect, 
stammering.  Through  his  stammering,  he 
spoiled  his  father's  play — because  he  was  not  able 
to  be  the  first  one,  because  he  was  not  able  to 
surpass  the  latter. 

Our  culture,  however,  agrees  with  those  chil- 
dren who  see  in  the  amassing  of  fortune  the  road 
to  power.  Similarly  led  on,  this  "will  to  power" 
assumed  the  external  form  of  stinginess  and 
avarice  in  so  far  as  he  further  developed  these 
tendencies.  It  was  only  the  contradiction  be- 
tween a  vulgar  avariciousness  and  the  ego-ideal 
which  forced  him  to  a  concealment  of  the  impulse 
to  avarice  by  means  of  which  he  wished  to  domi- 
nate his  father,  and  forced  him  to  the  substitution 
of  the  stammering.  In  the  further  course  of  the 
analysis  the  origin  of  his  desire  for  possession 
became  evident.  He  suffered  practically  con- 
stantly in  his  infancy  from  stomach  and  intestinal 
disorders,  which  were  the  expression  of  a  heredi- 
tary inferiority  of  the  gastro-intestinal  tract.  In 
the  family,  stomach  and  intestinal  disorders 
played  an  important  role.  The  patient  recalled 
very  distinctly  how  he  frequently  had  to  deny 
himself  appetizing  food  in  spite  of  hunger  and 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       133 

desire,  whereas  his  parents  and  brothers  and  sis- 
ters consumed  them  with  pleasure.  Whenever 
he  could  he  gathered  foods,  bonbons  and  fruits  to 
be  feasted  upon  later.  In  this  tendency  to 
gather,  we  already  see  the  influence  of  the  devel- 
oping craving  for  security,  which  is  constantly 
endeavoring  to  adjust  in  some  way  or  other  the 
feeling  of  degradation. 

How  far,  however,  this  may  reach  may  be 
shown  by  a  constructed  example  which  I  am  able 
to  verify  with  analogies  from  our  case.  The 
eagerness  for  power,  and  through  it  for  posses- 
sion may  be  stirred  up  by  the  feeling  of  inferior- 
ity to  such  a  point  that  one  finds  it  at  phases  of 
the  psychic  development  when  one  would  least 
expect  it. 

A  small  patient  of  this  sort  will  at  first,  it  is 
true,  only  desire  to  have  the  apple  which  is  for- 
bidden him,  in  seeing  his  father  and  brother  eat- 
ing the  same.  Envy  will  begin  to  stir  itself,  and 
after  a  brief  period  such  a  child  may  have  reached 
the  stage  in  his  deliberateness  and  contemplation 
when  out  of  the  striving  for  equality  he  will  at- 
tempt to  prevent  others  from  having  an}i;hing 
before  he  has  it.  It  will  soon  have  reached  so  far 
in  the  elaboration  of  this  albeit  only  slightly  im- 
portant idea,  as  to  have  at  his  disposal  all  sorts 
of  preparations  and  facilities,  it  will,  especially 
in  the  presence  of  an  originally  inferior  muscular 


134  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

system,  train  itself  for  the  whole  year  by  climbing 
and  jumping  in  order  to  be  able  to  climb  a  tree 
as  a  master  in  the  fall.  The  human  psyche  is  not 
able  to  account  always  for  fictitious  goals,  and 
thus  the  child  may  apparently  free  himself  from 
his  goal,  employ  his  dexterity  in  sports  and  gym- 
nastics in  the  service  of  other  tendencies,  which 
serve  in  a  different  manner  his  ego-consciousness 
somewhat  hke  our  modern  States  conduct  our 
war  preparations  without  even  knowing  the  fu- 
ture enemy. 

The  father  of  our  patient  may  have  easily  been 
taken  by  the  boy  as  an  incidental  example  because 
he  excelled  his  environment  in  greatness,  power, 
wealth  and  social  standing.  If  the  boy  is  to 
emerge  out  of  his  insecurity  into  which  he  has 
been  plunged  by  his  constitutional  inferiority  he 
must  arrange  his  preparations  for  life  in  accord- 
ance with  a  set  point  of  view  as  after  a  plan  (blue 
print).  A  marked  exhibition  of  the  guiding 
principle  toward  the  paternal  ideal  (Vaterideal) 
is  in  itself  quite  a  neurotic  trait,  because  in  it  we 
may  comprehend  the  entire  misery  of  the  child 
who  endeavors  to  emerge  from  his  insecurity. 
The  craving  for  security  (Sicherungstendenz) 
of  the  neurosis  leads  the  patient  in  this  way  out 
of  the  sphere  of  his  own  power  and  forces  him 
into  a  path  which  leads  away  from  reahty,  first 
because  he  takes  for  his  object  his  fiction  to  be 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       135 

equal  to  his  father  or  even  to  excel  him  and  is 
therefore  forced  to  formulate,  arrange  and  in- 
fluence his  apperception  of  life  under  its  compul- 
sion, and  second  because  one  can  never  succeed 
in  carrying  out  such  a  fiction  in  real  life  except 
in  a  psychosis. 

In  this  way,  there  develops  in  the  psyche  of  the 
child  an  intensive  searching,  weighing,  and  meas- 
uring tendency  of  which  I  shall  have  to  say  some- 
thing more.  That  which  is  according  to  my  ex- 
perience primarily  responsible  for  the  too  rigid 
assumption  of  the  paternal  guiding  principles, 
may  be  discovered  in  an  investigation  into  the 
sexual  roles.  The  neurotically  predisposed  child, 
or  as  I  may  say,  the  child  laboring  under  the  pres- 
sure of  a  feeling  of  inferiority,  desires  to  become 
a  man,  as  soon  as  the  neurosis  develops,  to  be  a 
man.  In  both  instances  he  can  only  conduct  him- 
self in  such  a  manner  as  if  he  were  a  man  or  shall 
^become  one.  The  exaggerated  craving  for  secur- 
ity drives  also  in  this  instance  the  attitude  of  the 
developing  neurotic  into  the  ban  of  the  fiction, 
so  that  in  some  instances  even  conscious  simula- 
tion may  come  into  play,  and  a  girl  for  instance 
in  order  to  escape  a  feeling  of  inferiority  may 
in  the  beginning  borrow  in  conscious  imitation 
masculine  gestures  of  her  father.  There  is  no 
reason  for  the  assimiption  that  because  of  this  she 
must  be  in  love  with  her  father.     The  mere  over- 


136  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

valuation  of  the  masculine  principle  suffices  for 
this,  may  nevertheless  at  times  be  taken  as  in- 
fatuation by  the  girl  herself  as  well  as  by  her  en- 
vironment, should  the  preparations  for  the  future 
playfully  demand  a  hinting  of  love  or  a  marriage. 
In  our  case  the  guiding  line  to  the  compensatory 
ego-ideal,  transformed  itself  through  a  change 
of  form  and  content  into  a  craving  to  excel  the 
father  in  wealth,  esteem,  and  along  with  this  in 
manliness.  The  inquiry  into  his  own  sexual  role, 
sets  in  intensively  and  typically  as  sexual  curi- 
osity, whereby  the  patient  in  his  feeling  of  in- 
feriority, apperceives  the  smallness  of  his  infantile 
genitals  as  compared  with  the  largeness  of  the 
paternal  ones,  as  a  bitter  setback,  as  a  want  of 
masculinity.  His  ambitiousness  which  shall  en- 
able him  to  rise  out  of  his  state  of  inferiority, 
compelled  him  to  a  heightening  of  his  sense  of 
shame,  in  order  that  his  genitals  may  not  be  seen 
in  the  event  of  an  exposure  (in  case  he  is  nude) . 
To  this  may  be  added  that  he  was  of  Jewish 
descent.  He  had  heard  certain  things  about  cir- 
cumcision and  harbored  the  idea  that  he  was  also 
(Verkurzt)  behttled  through  the  operation. 
His  masculine  protest  drove  him  to  a  degradation 
of  woman,  as  if  he  had  to  give  proof  to  his  superi- 
ority in  this  wise,  and  came  into  the  most  abomi- 
nable relationship  with  his  mother. 

But  also  with  respect  to  his  father,  whose  pref- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       137 

erence  for  himself  he  gained  through  diplomatic 
adjustment,  he  harbored  hostile  thoughts  which 
became  especially  prominent  when  the  father 
over-emphasized  his  own  superiority  to  do  which 
he  had  a  marked  inclination.  In  this  chaos  of 
feelings  the  patient  sought  orientation,  and  found 
it  only  in  the  thought  to  become  superior  to  his 
father,  to  become  more  manly  than  he. 

He  had,  too,  as  often  happens  in  such  cases, 
undertaken  attempts  at  enlarging  his  genitals  or 
bringing  about  erection.  This  route  which  leads 
to  sexual  precocity  and  masturbation,  was  soon 
abandoned  by  him,  because  his  father  warned  him 
against  it  on  numerous  occasions.  Thus  there 
remained  as  a  substitution  for  his  masculine  pro- 
test, only  efforts  to  become  richer,  more  honored 
and  wiser  than  his  father,  and  to  degrade  his  en- 
vironment. 

His  father  placed  great  hopes  in  the  patient's 
oratorical  talents,  which  had  shown  themselves  al- 
ready in  childhood,  did  not  allow  himself  to  be  de- 
ceived by  the  mild  stammering  of  the  boy,  and 
hoped  he  would  make  a  law  career.  In  this  re- 
spect the  patient  was  able  to  strike  at  the  father's 
most  vulnerable  point,  and  thus  he  sank  into  a 
more  pronounced  stammering,  a  neurotic  mani- 
festation of  the  insurance  against  the  superiority 
of  the  father,  a  manifestation  whose  inception 
was  given  him  by  a  stammering  home  teacher. 


il38  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

In  the  course  of  time,  this  symptom  gained  many 
other  uses,  for  example,  the  one  that  through  his 
stammering  he  always  gained  time  in  which  to 
weigh  his  words,  to  avoid  demands  of  the  family, 
to  utilize  the  confession  of  others  as  well  as  that 
prejudice  because  of  which,  only  little  was  ex- 
pected of  him,  which  he  then  managed  to  fulfill 
easily.  It  is  interesting  that  his  quite  apparent 
stammering  was  no  obstacle  to  his  courtship,  that 
it  even  expedited  matters,  a  fact  which  becomes 
quite  comprehensible  from  our  standpoint,  ac- 
cording to  which  we  assume  the  existence  of  a 
quite  prevalent  type  of  girl  which  cannot  omit 
from  the  conditions  of  their  love  that  the  man  of 
their  choice  must  be  beneath  them,  so  that  they 
may  with  certainty  rule  over  him.  Especially 
hostile  feelings  against  his  parents,  brothers  and 
sisters  and  the  servants  he  put  a  stop  to,  through 
the  development  of  a  new  guiding  principle  which 
was  to  make  of  him  a  benevolent  man.  This  new 
evolution  took  place  under  a  nightly  confession 
through  which  he  reproached  himself  for  his  wick- 
edness and  arranged  qualms  of  conscience.  His 
growing  knowledge  thus  showed  him  the  way, 
through  a  cultural  subterfuge  to  a  heightening  of 
his  ego-consciousness. 

The  want  of  a  direct  aggressiveness  showed  it- 
self in  thoughts  and  phantasies,  albeit  also  in  his 
good  progress  at  school,  so  that  he  was  victorious 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       139 

over  all  his  classmates.  A  growing  tendency  to- 
wards sarcasm  and  exasperation  of  others  was  at 
this  time  the  only  manifest  expression  of  his  for- 
mer often  violent  aggressiveness  which  gained  for 
him  the  nickname  of  "blood-leech."  His  comba- 
tive attitude  played  an  important  role  in  the  cause 
of  Judaism,  which  was  reflected  in  an  act  of  com- 
pulsion at  the  age  of  twelve.  Whenever  he  en- 
tered a  swimming  pool  he  had  to  cover  his  geni- 
tals with  his  hands  and  immediately  submerge  his 
head  under  the  water,  where  he  kept  it  until  he 
counted  49,  so  that  he  often  came  to  the  surface 
gasping  for  air  and  exhausted.  The  analysis  re- 
vealed the  mental  content  to  be  a  striving  of  his 
phantasy  to  bring  about  an  equality  of  genitalia. 
The  forty-ninth  year  is,  according  to  the  old  Jew- 
ish laws,  with  which  he  had  become  acquainted 
shortly  before,  the  year  of  the  jubilee,  in  which 
all  acres  were  again  made  equal.  Ideas  of  this 
sort,  and  the  simultaneous  concealment  of  the 
genitalia  showed  the  way  to  the  interpretation. 
One  may  almost  draw  the  conclusion  that  also  his 
stammering  was  intended  to  make  him  quits  with 
a  superiority  of  his  father,  of  all  people,  inasmuch 
as  his  stuttering  was  an  obstacle  to  them,  was  even 
painful  to  them. 

His  avarice,  his  stinginess,  were  accordingly 
active  in  the  same  direction,  namely,  to  clear  the 
field  of  superiorities  of  others,  to  insure  him 


140  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

against  further  degradation  and  belittling 
through  poverty,  thus  he  was  compelled  markedly 
to  expand  these  secondary  directions  and  to  for- 
mulate and  evaluate  his  experiences  according  to 
them  in  order  to  reach  the  heightening  of  his  ego- 
consciousness,  his  masculine  protest.  It  was 
only  under  such  circumstances  where  through 
revelation  of  these  traits  of  character  a  lowering 
of  his  ego  might  arise  that  he  suppressed  their 
apparent  activity. 

It  were  an  absurdity  to  wish  to  assume  a  moral 
standpoint  in  a  medico-psychological  question,  to 
consider  people  like  the  above  as  morally  inferior. 
Those  who  have  an  inclination  in  this  direction  I 
wish  to  remind  of  the  very  strong,  compensatory 
traits  of  character,  of  a  worthy  nature,  for  the 
rest  I  wish  to  remind  them  of  Rochefoucauld's 
wise  sentence — viz:  "I  have  never  investigated 
the  soul  of  a  wicked  man,  but  I  once  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  soul  of  a  good  man:  I  was 
shocked." 

In  another  case,  the  nature  of  the  avarice 
showed  itself  not  as  a  safety  device  for  the  com- 
pensation of  a  feeling  of  degradation,  but  above 
all  as  an  artifice  in  the  service  of  the  craving  for 
security.  A  forty-five  year  old  patient  who  suf- 
fered throughout  life  from  psychic  impotency, 
and  was  pursued  by  suicidal  ideas,  showed  an  es- 
pecially marked  tendency  to  degrade  others. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       141 

We  know  this  trait  of  character  from  the  de- 
scription of  the  previous  case  where  it  served  as 
it  always  does  to  do  away  with  one's  own  feehng 
of  inferiority.  With  this  tendency  there  is 
usually  associated  exaggerated  mistrust  and 
envy,  which  have  for  their  object  as  neurotic- 
psychic  dexterities,  the  falsification  of  the  search 
and  valuation  of  experiences.  A  tendency,  too, 
to  cause  others  bodily  and  psychic  pain,  will  like- 
wise know  how  to  assert  itself  in  an  accentuated 
manner.  The  abstract,  guiding  point  of  view  of 
the  patient,  to  assure  his  dominating  position,  to 
be  above,  appeared  to  be  obviously  threatened, 
and  compelled  a  strengthening  of  fictitious  guid- 
ing principles.  Reminiscences  out  of  his  infan- 
tile period  were  utilized  in  the  neurosis,  as  result 
of  which  he  came  near  being  the  victim  of  a  homo- 
sexuahst.  He  was  raised  as  an  only  boy  among 
his  sisters,  a  situation  which,  according  to  my  ex- 
perience, frequently  narrows  the  understanding 
of  one's  own  sexual  role. 

Of  importance  was  his  attitude  toward  his 
father,  because  it  likewise  drove  him  to  strength- 
ened security  devices.  The  father,  namely,  was 
brutal,  egotistical,  tyrannical,  so  that  it  was  diffi- 
cult for  the  boy  to  assert  his  own  value  in  his 
presence.  Several  love  adventures  had  thrown 
the  father  into  quite  difficult  situations  which  our 
patient  utilized  as  mementoes  in  his  developed 


142  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

psychosis.  This  mistrust  was  directed  against 
all  women.  Throughout  life  he  remained  ready 
to  make  sacrifices  for  his  sisters,  but  he  had  al- 
ready apperceived  this  fact  with  an  unusual 
amount  of  feeling,  and  readily  developed  from 
this  trains  of  thought  which  were  to  show  how 
readily  he  gave  in  to  women.  Incidentally,  he 
was  able  to  advance  quite  considerably  in  this 
direction  in  order  to  be  able  to  emphasize  sharply 
this  impression  for  himself.  It  was  then  that  he 
was  prepared  to  withdraw  himself  from  women. 
He  transformed  into  a  sexual  image,  feelings 
of  inferiority  which  were  present  in  his  childhood. 
The  reason  for  his  unmanly  bearing — for  the 
homosexualist  wanted  to  take  him  for  a  girl — ^he 
sought  for  and  found  in  an  incidental  Cryptor- 
chism  caused  by  a  patent  canal.  At  the  age  of 
eight  he  watched  a  boy  in  the  act  of  masturba- 
tion. Hie  puer  ci  semen  ejacularit  in  os — which 
he  looked  upon  as  a  further  sign  of  his  feminine 
role.  So  long  as  he  took  his  father  as  his  guiding 
principle,  he  exhibited  the  ordinary  dexterities 
intended  to  make  him  equal  to  his  father.  He 
secretly  consumed  his  father's  whiskey,  en- 
deavored to  bring  his  mother  over  to  his  side,  and 
already  early  in  life  had  chosen  his  father's  trade, 
by  means  of  which  he  was  also  able  to  satisfy  his 
sadistic  tendencies  which  were  excited  by  his  feel- 
ing  of  inferiority  and  his  striving  toward  the  pa- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       143 

temal  guiding  line — to  choose  the  trade  of  a 
butcher.  He  was  also  fond  of  bringing  his  vul- 
gar tendencies  into  execution  upon  girls  and 
women — he  was  in  the  habit  of  biting  them,  beat- 
ing them,  and  took  part  one  time  in  a  sexual  as- 
sault, when  he  carried  out  coitus  per  anum  in 
order  to  avoid  a  possibility  of  alimony.  His 
experience,  however,  which  showed  him  in  the 
complete  brutal  character  of  his  father,  drove 
him,  because  of  the  threatening  of  a  lawsuit,  and 
the  degradation  associated  with  it,  to  a  neurotic 
subterfuge.  He  utilized  his  already  accentuated 
mistrust  of  women  for  the  purpose  of  torturing 
them  with  fits  of  jealousy,  of  bringing  them  en- 
tirely under  his  influence  and  insure  in  this  man- 
ner the  appearance  of  dominancy. 

His  ejaculatio  prcecox  and  the  associated  im- 
potency  served  his  need  for  security  in  the  same 
manner  as  did  his  animosity  towards  women. 
He  showed  preference  for  the  seduction  of  mar- 
ried women  in  order  to  cause  them  disappoint- 
ments through  his  impotency,  at  the  same  time, 
however,  to  gain  in  a  sportive  manner  a  substan- 
tiation of  his  belief  that  all  women  were  bad. 
Also  in  his  compulsory  ideas  this  tendency  to 
cause  pain  manifested  itself.  Thus  even  during 
his  treatment  he  experienced  sudden  impulsions 
to  bite  and  beat  a  language  teacher  while  taking 
a  lesson  from  her,  because  he  developed  ideas  that 


144  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

she  had  a  lover  whom  she  preferred  to  the  patient. 
This  sadistic  reaction  to  a  feeling  of  subordinacy, 
as  a  masculine  protest  against  a  feeling  of  being 
unmanly,  effeminate,  had  its  origin  in  childhood 
and  runs  through  his  entire  neurosis.  It  was  not 
difficult  to  prove,  that  his  impotency  similarly 
obeyed  the  goal  to  find  a  means  whereby  to  es- 
cape the  call  of  love,  the  subordination  to  a  wife, 
a  tendency,  however,  which  found  its  continu- 
ation in  a  further  degradation  of  women. 

As  he  saw  no  prospect  of  dominating  his 
teacher,  he  immediately  left  her,  because  he  knew 
that  she  was  dependent  upon  giving  him  lessons. 
Before,  however,  having  done  this  he  undertook 
a  critical  estimation  of  the  expense  of  taking  les- 
sons, found  them  beyond  his  means  which  could 
be  readily  seen  to  be  a  false  purposive  valuation 
of  the  very  well-to-do  individual.  In  the  same 
manner  he  made  use  of  the  occasionally  recurring 
reminiscences  of  incestuous  thoughts,  in  order  to 
become  apprehensively  conscious  of  his  inferior- 
ity, of  his  criminal  tendencies  as  soon  as  women 
came  into  play.  Thus  he  established  his  base  of 
operation,  by  means  of  which  he  must  insure  him- 
self against  the  feminine  gender,  as  a  result  of 
which  he  seemed  to  be  assured  of  lasting  superior- 
ity throughout  life. 

The  essence  of  his  compulsion  towards  an  in- 
surance against  women  lay  in  the  fear  that  he 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       145 

might  experience  in  marriage  or  love  disappoint- 
ment which  he  might  attribute  to  his  unmanli- 
ness.  Inasmuch  as  he  sought  his  remote  goal  in 
the  proof  of  his  might  he  was  bound  to  become 
inclined  toward  caution  and  neurotic  subter- 
fuges. In  this  patient  also  there  were  present 
early  gastro-intestinal  disturbances,  and  as  a 
peripheral  sign  of  inferiority  the  fatal  inguinal 
hernia.  In  his  sort  of  love-activity,  exaggerated 
avarice  lent  itself  as  the  most  useful  means  for 
an  insurance  against  a  too  far-reaching  surren- 
der. In  order,  however,  that  this  avarice  may  be 
of  use,  it  must  embrace  the  whole  sphere  of  his 
life's  relations  and  must  be  omnipresent.  It 
must  in  turn  be  supported,  it  must  be  assisted  by 
aU  sorts  of  by-traits.  This  took  place  among 
other  things  in  the  arrangement  of  compulsory 
ideas.  Whenever  he  used  an  automobile,  the 
thought  that  a  collision  might  take  place  came  to 
his  mind.  A  further  analysis  of  this  compulsory 
idea  revealed  that  he  was  farthest  away  from  a 
belief  in  such  an  eventuality  but  that  he  always 
avoided  all  expensive  means  of  travel.  Yes, 
even  when  he  used  the  tram  cars  for  an  extended 
trip,  the  thought  occurred  to  him,  upon  reach- 
ing the  point  where  the  cheap  fare  terminated 
and  the  more  expensive  one  began,  that  a  col- 
lision might  take  place,  or  that  the  bridge  which 
had  to  be  crossed  might  coUapse,  so  that  he  would 


116  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

always  pay  the  cheaper  fare,  save  a  few  pennies 
and  cover  the  rest  of  the  distance  on  foot.  He 
was  on  the  road  where  he  felt  bitterly  every  ex- 
penditure. 

Thus  it  also  came  to  pass  that  he  sought  to 
degrade  man,  in  order  to  gain  a  uniformity  of 
behavior.  This  already  became  distinctly  mani- 
fest in  the  hunt  after  married  women,  and  the 
dismay  and  disappointment  of  the  seduced  women 
as  well  as  the  abusive  language  which  he  used  to- 
ward them  afterward  pleased  him  no  less  than 
the  satisfaction  of  once  again  having  shown  him- 
self to  be  the  stronger.  This  was  in  line  with 
the  content  of  his  life,  with  the  change  of  form 
in  which  his  original  fiction  to  be  the  manliest 
came  closest  to  realization. 

Only  the  fear  of  women  which  synchronously 
with  the  realization  of  his  own  femininity  origi- 
nally led  him  to  his  exaggerated  masculine  pro- 
test, found  itself  again  in  the  unduly  accentu- 
ated insurance  against  the  domination  of  women 
and  allowed  him  to  strengthen  beyond  measure 
like  a  safety-dam  his  mistrust  and  avarice,  both 
of  which  offered  good  arguments.  Swept  away 
by  this  craving  for  security,  he  furthermore  at- 
tached to  it  his  psychic  impotency,  with  which  he 
became  acquainted  during  his  first  attempts  at 
coitus.  A  servant  girl  whom  he  wanted  to  se- 
duce as  a  youngster,  offered  resistance  and  es- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       147 

caped  him  by  tightening  her  limbs.  He  was  at 
that  time  inexperienced  and  considered  himself 
impotent.  Later,  as  he  became  more  experi- 
enced in  these  matters,  he  felt  his  inexperience 
in  such  a  way,  as  if  woman  were  an  insoluble 
puzzle  to  him.  In  the  original  impotency,  how- 
ever, as  well  as  in  his  helplessness  in  the  presence 
of  woman,  he  found  the  neurotic  subterfuges  by 
means  of  which  to  escape  a  depreciatory  defeat, 
a  decision  adverse  to  his  masculinity.  The  com- 
paring of  himself  with  other  men  set  in  vehe- 
mently now.  He  would  surprise  himself  for  in- 
stance, when  sitting  at  the  table  in  company,  in 
a  psychic  situation,  where  before  any  one  even 
had  spoken  a  word,  he  was  already  planning  a 
repartee,  already  figuring  how  he  might  prove  the 
speaker  wrong,  no  matter  whether  he  was  speak- 
ing of  a  book  or  a  theatrical  performance,  or 
society  or  place,  his  derogatory  criticism  always 
pushed  itself  to  the  front  in  a  most  pronounced 
form.  And  so  it  was  to  be  expected  that  after 
a  brief  introductory  period  his  traits  of  mistrust, 
avarice,  and  depreciation  of  others  would  become 
evident  every  time  he  underwent  medical  treat- 
ment, often  quite  artfully  linked  one  with  the 
other.  This  phenomenon,  not  at  all  in  the  Freud- 
ian sense  of  a  transference,  but  because  his  rigidly 
fixed  psychic  gesture,  his  attitude  of  attack,  his 
tendency  to  degrade  others,  actually  did,  and 


148  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

upon  closer  acquaintance,  was  obliged  to  come  to 
the  surface.     To  this  was  added  another  accentu- 
ating moment.     His  object  when  seeking  the  ad- 
vice of  a  physician,  could  not  have  been  simply 
to  become  rid  of  his  impotency  because  in  such  an 
event,  he  would  have  been  cast  into  the  chaos  of 
his  apprehensions.     He  was  much  more  anxious 
to  find  proof  of  his  incurability,  or  to  find  means 
of  ridding  himself  of  his  impotency  without  the 
fear  of  a  defeat.     In  order  to  bring  about  the 
first,  a  depreciation  of  the  physician's  ability  was 
a  preliminary  condition.     The  proper  means  of 
ridding  himself  of  his  impotency  however,  he 
could  only  find  after  following  up  his  fear  of 
women  to  its  source,  to  the  feeling  of  his  unmanli- 
ness,  in  which  his  feeling  of  inferiority  became 
concrete.     One  of  his  dreams  which  occurred  at 
the  period  preceding  the  termination  of  the  treat- 
ment showed  this  state  of  affairs  very  distinctly. 

I  must  first  of  all  briefly  state  that  I  make  use 
of  certain  important  parts  of  the  Breuer-Freud 
technique  of  dream  interpretation,  but  that  I  see 
in  the  dream  an  abstracting,  simplifying  en- 
deavor to  find,  by  means  of  a  premeditation  and 
testing  of  difficulties  carried  on  in  accordance 
with  the  patient's  own  peculiar  scheme — a  pro- 
tective way  for  the  ego-consciousness  out  of  a  sit- 
uation which  threatens  a  defeat. 

One   will   therefore    always    discover   in   the 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       149 

dream,  that  significant  scheme  of  the  antithetical 
mode  of  apperception:  "masculine-feminine," 
"above — beneath"  as  existing  originally  in  every- 
body, but  especially  marked  in  the  neurotic. 
The  various  notions  and  recollections  which  come 
to  the  surface  in  the  dream,  must  be  brought 
within  this  scheme  before  they  can  be  of  any  aid 
in  the  interpretation  of  same,  whose  object  it  is 
not — or  at  least  not  principally — the  fulfillment 
of  infantile  wishes  but  rather  to  accompany  those 
introductory  endeavors,  to  bring  about  a  balance 
in  favor  of  the  ego-consciousness,  through  balanc- 
ing the  patient's  debit-credit  account  in  a  pecu- 
liarly neurotic  manner.  His  dream  was  as  fol- 
lows: 

"I  dealt  in  second-hand  goods  in  Vienna,  or  in 
Germany,  or  in  France.  I  had  to  buy,  however, 
new  goods  and  wash  them,  because  this  would 
then  be  cheaper.  Then  they  were  again  old 
(second-hand)  goods." 

The  new  goods  meant  new  potent  genitalia  in 
contrast  to  the  "(second-hand)  old  goods,"  his 
impotency — which  as  yet  nobody  had  cured. 
Here  the  idea  of  a  new  life,  of  a  possibility  of  at- 
taining potency,  shines  through.  The  words, 
"because  they  would  be  cheaper"  correspond  to 
the  previously  elucidated  ideas,  his  fear  of  money 
expenditures  in  case  he  does  not  become  potent. 
This  idea,  however,  can  only  be  accepted  under 


150  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

one  condition,  to  wit — if  the  patient  is  saturated 
with  the  conviction  that  he  is  boundless  in  his 
love-impulse,  that  he  knows  no  limits  and  sense- 
lessly hunts  after  women.  This  conviction  he 
purposely  takes  for  himself  out  of  his  childhood 
reminiscences,  out  of  his  period  of  puberty  and 
adolescence.  In  doing  so  he  also  assists  in  the 
shaping  of  his  infantile  incest-stirrings  should 
these  serve  his  purpose  in  a  form,  as  if  he  had 
coveted  his  mother  or  sisters  with  a  sexual  object. 
This  means  that  he  works,  with  a  fiction  which 
arose  from  the  assumed  goal,  through  gaining 
security  for  himself,  similarly  as  Sophocles  de- 
veloped and  shaped  tlie  OEdipus  legend  in  order 
to  stabilize  the  holy  conmiands  of  the  gods.  Our 
patient  became  a  willing  victim  of  his  limited  un- 
derstanding of  dialectic  and  of  the  antithetical 
manner  of  primitive  thinking.  The  guiding  idea 
of  his  ego-ideal  "I  must  not  covet  blood  rela- 
tions," embraces  dialectically  the  antithetical 
thought  of  an  incestuous  possibility.  Inasmuch 
as  the  neurotic  desires  to  insure  himself,  he  clings 
to  this  antithetical  thought,  plays  with  it,  empha- 
sizes it  and  utilizes  it  in  the  neurosis  in  the  same 
way  as  all  other  frightening  reminiscences  which 
appear  to  him  to  be  useful  for  his  security.  In 
the  life  of  our  patient,  and  in  the  lives  of  all  neu- 
rotics, there  are  very  many  more  experiences, 
which  might  have  been  able  to  carry  with  them 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       151 

the  conviction  that  they  were  free  from  incestu- 
ous stimuli,  that  they  were  always  especially  tem- 
perate, careful  and  timorous. 

Inasmuch,  however,  as  he  desires  to  reassure 
himself,  his  neurotic  and  falsifying  mode  of  ap- 
perception push  these  traits  of  character  pur- 
posely aside.  He  has  many  more  impressions  to 
that  effect,  that  he  does  not  covet  his  mother  and 
sister,  but  he  is,  however,  unable  to  utilize  them  in 
the  service  of  his  craving  for  security.  Thus 
there  remains  for  them  only  a  memory  rest  of  a 
playful  preparatory  venture,  and  because  this 
may  serve  as  a  warning  to  him,  he  makes  of  it  a 
bugbear,  with  which  to  frighten  himself.  Ex- 
actly in  the  same  manner,  develop  neurotic 
anxiety,  fear  of  places,  hypochondriasis,  pes- 
simism and  constant  doubting,  inasmuch  as  these 
patients  only  avail  themselves  of  those  impres- 
sions and  experiences  which  serve  the  purpose  of 
bringing  about  security,  which  strengthens  their 
affective  state  while  they  depreciate  all  others 
especially  those  of  an  antithetical  nature.  The 
sophist's  ability  ''in  utram-que  partem  dicere'^  of 
everything  is  also  possessed  by  the  neurotic  as 
well  as  by  the  psychotic,  and  they  utilize  it  as 
they  need  it. 

The  thoroughly  polished,  purposefully 
strengthened  dexterities  of  neurotics,  and  the 
neurotic  traits  of  character  which  go  with  them 


152  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

are  impossible  for  the  fact  that  every  new  situa- 
tion brings  about  havoc.  (Lombroso's  misoneis- 
mus.)  More  than  anything  else,  our  patient 
feared  the,  to  him  unknown,  situation  of  sexual 
gratification  and  successful  coitus,  because  in 
presentiments  of  this  situation,  he  gave  himself 
for  reasons  of  safety  the  role  of  the  underling 
(unterliegenden).  Now  this  fear,  which  is  ap- 
perceived  as  a  fear  of  impotency,  furnishes  a  fur- 
ther security  against  the  possibility  of  being  re- 
strained, restricted  in  freedom  or  deceived  by  his 
wife,  against  a  possibility  of  not  being  equal  to 
her,  against  a  role  which  is  contrary  to  his  mas- 
culine ideal,  and  which  he  therefore  evaluates  as 
effeminate. 

Out  of  the  harmless,  ubiquitous  traits  of  sel- 
fishness, avarice  and  stinginess,  he  puts  together 
a  far-reaching,  apparently  imminent,  but  in  real- 
ity fictitious  guiding  principle  of  "avarice,"  be- 
cause, the  retention  of  this  appears  to  him  to  be 
lost.  Should  he  become  endowed,  as  was  the 
case  in  the  dream  with  that  which  he  had  desired 
already  in  childhood,  namely,  new  genitals,  a 
healthy  potency,  then  he  must  defend  himself 
against  it.  He  takes  hold  then  of  a  means,  with 
which  he  has  been  long  acquainted,  which  has 
often  been  highly  recommended  to  him,  which 
after  all  enfeebles  his  erections  instead  of 
strengthening  them, — he  turns  to  cold  washes. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       153 

This  according  to  his  experiences,  inadequate 
remedy,  he  considers  equal  to  my  treatment. 
The  remedy  shall  bring  about  the  opposite  to 
what  it  is  aimed  to  do,  and  this  physician  shall 
have  just  as  little  success  as  the  former  ones. 
Thus  the  dream  shows  him  the  way  out  of  the 
situation,  it  tells  him  how  to  safeguard  himself 
against  the  treatment  and  thus  get  the  upper 
hand  of  the  physician.  "Then  they  are  second- 
hand goods  again." 

In  other  cases  of  psychic  impotency  a  cure 
readily  results,  and  as  we  know,  as  result  of  the 
most  diverse  kinds  of  remedies.  Often  it  con- 
cerns nem'otic  patients  who  by  the  mere  fact  of 
going  to  consult  a  physician  give  one  to  under- 
stand that  they  would  be  inclined  to  give  up  this 
form  of  security.  In  that  case  all  manner  of 
medication,  cold  douches,  electricity,  hydrother- 
apy, and  especially  every  form  of  suggestion, 
even  the  one  resulting  from  an  incomplete  analy- 
sis are  of  value,  occasionally  the  authoritative 
command  of  the  physician  suffices  to  bring  about 
definite  consequences.  In  severe  cases,  it  is 
necessary  to  bring  about  a  transformation  of  the 
all  too  absorbing,  concentrated  psyche  upon  the 
idea  of  security. 

Age  often  intensely  stimulates  envy  and 
avarice.     Psychologically  this  is  not  difficult  to 


154  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

understand.  No  matter  how  beautifully  poets 
and  philosoi^hers  endeavor  to  picture  age,  it  is 
nevertheless  only  given  to  the  select  souls,  to 
maintain  their  equilibrium,  when  they  see  loom- 
ing up  in  the  distance  the  gate  which  leads  to 
death.  Then  again  the  denials  and  restrictions, 
which  the  senium  naturally  carries  with  it,  and 
the  perceptible  dominancy  of  the  younger  folks, 
of  one's  own  relations,  which  often  furnish  the 
occasion,  quite  innocently — or  apparently  so — 
for  a  degradation  of  old  people — will  almost  al- 
ways lead  to  a  depression  of  the  ego-conscious- 
ness. The  sunshiny  preparedness  as  it  is  re- 
freshingly expressed  in  Goethe's  "Father  Time" 
is  a  quite  unattainable  illusion  for  most  people, 
and  fortunate  indeed  may  be  considered  those 
who  survive  their  best  time  of  life  without  a  se- 
vere depression  of  the  spirits. 

According  to  our  thesis,  it  must  naturally  fol- 
low that  the  period  of  aging — brings  forth  simi- 
larly to  a  severe  setback,  a  feeling  of  inferiority. 
Especially  affected  by  this  will  be  all  those  who 
are  neurotically  predisposed.  At  times  it  is  age, 
in  women,  the  climacteric,  feelings  of  insuffi- 
ciency of  a  psychic  or  physical  nature,  indica- 
tions of  impotency,  a  breaking  up  of  the  family, 
marriage  of  a  son  or  daughter,  as  well  as  financial 
losses,  the  loss  of  a  position  or  post  of  honor 
which  first  causes  the  breakdown.     In  most  in- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       155 

stances  one  may  already  find  in  the  previous  his- 
tory indications  of  actual  attacks  of  a  neurotic 
character. 

Age  with  its  losses  has  the  same  effect  as  other 
degradations  of  the  ego-consciousness.  The  ag- 
gressive tendency  seeks  other  means  whereby  an 
adjustment  may  be  brought  about,  other  means 
which  unfortunately  are  not  easily  to  be  had  in 
these  cases.  Renunciation  would  come  easier,  if 
along  with  the  sinking  of  bodily  and  mental 
power  there  would  also  take  place  a  narrowing  of 
the  emotional  life.  This  seldom  happens,  and  in 
order  to  find  a  substitute  for  the  loss,  the  aggres- 
sive tendency  which  has  been  stimulated  by  the 
insecurity — again  whips  up  all  stimuli  of  desire. 
The  universal  decree  frequently  stands  all  too 
firm  against  all  these  endeavors.  The  bearing, 
the  life,  the  desires,  the  dress,  the  work  and  ac- 
complishments of  aging  people  are  subject  to 
criticism  in  a  great  measure.  Those  who  are 
predisposed  to  a  neurosis  will  readily  take  this 
criticism  as  a  barricade — and  will  already  shrink 
from  these  situations  which  still  offer  possibility 
of  gratification.  Such  an  individual  will  force 
himself  into  submission,  will  want  to  annihilate 
his  feelings  and  desires,  without  being  able  to 
set  himself  to  rights  with  them.  Yes,  still  more 
intensely  will  these  flare  up  when  a  renunciation 
without  adjustment  is  demanded. 


156  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Thus  it  happens  that  the  active  hostile  traits  of 
character  develop,  that  envy,  ill-will,  avarice,  the 
craving  for  dominancy,  sadistic  impulses  of  all 
sorts,  experience  accentuations,  and  never  satis- 
fied, bring  about  a  restlessness  which  unremit- 
tingly strives  for  remedies,  substitutions,  securi- 
ties, "Where  you  are  not — there  is  happiness" 
because  the  real  position  of  aging  people  is  seri- 
ously endangered  in  our  state  of  society,  inas- 
much as  it  is  the  productive  value,  which  is  almost 
exclusively  the  test  of  the  worth  of  the  personal- 
ity. The  neurotic's  sustenance  (Brod)  on  the 
other  hand  is  the  appearance  of  power,  prestige, 
even  suicide  has  already  come  within  our  experi- 
ence as  the  last  expression  of  masculine  protest. 

The  advent  of  senility  has  even  a  stronger  ef- 
fect upon  women  than  upon  men.  Even  the 
significance  of  the  climacteric  is  usually  phantas- 
tically  exaggerated.  Youth  and  beauty  meant 
power  for  woman,  and  more  so  than  for  man. 
Her  charms  were  able  to  give  her  dominancy,  vic- 
tories and  triumphs,  for  which  the  neurotic  greed- 
iness constantly  longs. 

Age  to  them  is  like  a  stain.  Besides  their  value 
sinks  more  decidedly  than  is  the  case  with  the 
aging  man,  and  as  far  as  it  concerns  aging 
woman,  prevailing  psychology  may  be  desig- 
nated point  blank  as  actually  hostile. 

This  deplorable  feature  has  its  origin  in  the 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       157 

well  known  tendency  of  man  to  depreciate 
woman,  coupled  with  the  psychic  defeat  which 
they  experience  from  our  social  life,  a  neurotic 
germ  which  manifests  itself,  implacably  and  in- 
eradicably  even  unto  the  grave.  Consciously  or 
unconsciously,  often  unavoidably  from  the  na- 
ture of  things,  this  derogatory  tendency  has  its  in- 
jurious effect  upon  the  ego-consciousness  of  these 
aging  women,  who  after  all  have  a  right  to  live. 
Children's  love  and  respect  for  the  aged  as  aids 
and  guiding  points  of  view  in  man's  relations 
with  his  fellow  men,  furnish  only  the  very  mi- 
nutest relief  and  can  never  suffice  to  gratify  the 
stimulated  desires  of  people  whose  powers  are 
waning.  It  is  then  that  the  neurotic  bent  sets  in 
for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the  guiding 
principle.  "I  am  deprimed — I  had  too  little  out 
of  life — I  will  realize  nothing  more,"  this  one 
regularly  hears  in  the  complaints  of  aging  neu- 
rotics, and  they  accentuate  this  manner  of  view- 
ing life  to  such  an  extent,  that  they  suspiciously 
and  distrustfully  sink  into  a  repulsive  egoism, 
the  like  of  which  they  had  never  before  expe- 
rienced so  vividly.  Through  this,  however,  the 
vacillations  and  doubts  become  stabilized. 

"Act  as  though  you  were  still  obliged  to  attain 
worth,"  thus  approximately  rings  a  newly  con- 
structed guiding  principle,  and  along  with  this 
the  nerotic's  sharpening  of  avarice  becomes  more 


158  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

acute,  the  avaricious,  envious,  domineering  im- 
pulses come  violently  to  the  foreground,  almost, 
however,  restrained  by  the  previously  mentioned 
guiding  principles  in  accordance  with  which  these 
patients  shrink  with  apprehension  from  every 
desire  and  beginning.  Thus  there  lie  unmistak- 
ably under  cover,  separated  with  difficulty  from 
consciousness,  those  impulses  which  lastingly 
support  dissatisfaction,  impatience,  mistrust,  and 
uninterruptedly  direct  the  attention  of  the  unat- 
tained  and  often  unattainable.  In  the  last  in- 
stance, to  the  success  of  which  the  marked  adap- 
tability of  the  sexual  symbols  contributes  in  a 
way,  but  furthermore  also  the  fact  that  a  proof  of 
a  lack  of  sexual  gratification  is  readily  to  be  had 
by  every  one,  it  therefore  happens,  that  all  desire 
becomes  sexualized.  It  is  readily  understood 
that  these  people  apperceive  on  a  sexual  basis. 
But  one  must  avoid  taking  this  sexual  fiction, 
this,  so  to  speak,  ''modus  dicendi'*  or  as  I  have 
called  it,  the  sexual  jargon,  for  an  original  ex- 
perience. In  the  theoretical  part  I  have  dis- 
cussed the  reasons  for  the  marked  prominence  of 
the  sexual  guiding  principle  in  neurotics,  first, 
because  it,  like  all  other  guiding  principles  is  con- 
siderably accentuated  in  the  neurotic,  and  so  to 
speak,  felt  as  real  instead  of  what  it  was  intended 
for — namely,  as  a  protective  guiding  line — and 
second,  because  it  (the  sexual  guiding  principle) 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       159 

leads  in  the  direction  of  the  masculine  protest. 

Thus  it  happens  that  every  desire  of  the  aging 
neurotic  woman  may  be  referred  to  not  only  by 
herself,  but  with  a  little  effort  by  the  physician 
to  a  sexual  analogy.  Likewise,  that  the  physi- 
cian may  be  able  to  fill  the  neurotic's  want  of  a 
protective  analog}^  by  means  of  a  premature  of- 
fering of  a  sexual  guiding  principle  in  the  sense 
of  the  orthodox  Freudian  school,  may  unques- 
tionably be  inferred  from  the  foregoing  consid- 
erations. 

There  is  no  gain  so  long  as  one  does  not  suc- 
ceed in  ridding  the  patient  of  his  fiction,  which 
becomes  possible  when  he  becomes  more  certain 
of  himself,  and  is  able  to  recognize  his  pre- 
sumably libidinous  impulse  as  a  falsifying  fic- 
tion. 

Such  a  fiction  for  instance  is  the  so-called  cli- 
macteric of  the  male,  of  former  authors,  described 
by  Freud  and  Kurt  JNIendel.  The  chmacteric  of 
woman  has  its  psychic  effect  irrespective  of  the 
metabolic  phenomena,  because  of  the  heightening 
of  the  feeling  of  inferiority.  Concomitant  dis- 
turbances of  metabolism  are  only  able  to  change 
or  intensify  the  neiu*otic's  aspect,  the  moment  it 
makes  itself  specifically  felt  through  an  intensi- 
fication of  the  insecurity.  Basedow's  neurosis  in 
climacteric  women  furnishes  an  example  of  such 
a  mixed  and  intensified  picture.     The  neurosis  of 


160  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

the  climacteric  in  man,  is  likewise  only  indirectly 
influenced  by  atrophy  of  the  genitals,  may,  how- 
ever, experience  an  intensification  through  the 
aggravating  abstraction,  "I  am  no  longer  a  man 
— I  am  a  woman."  Inasmuch  as  the  masculine 
guiding  principle  becomes  intensified  and  hypo- 
stasized  through  carefulness  and  appropriate 
stimuli  as  a  result  of  this  ideologic  standpoint 
those  wonderful  manifestations  of  the  Johannis- 
trieb  take  place,  the  frequent  occurrence  of  which 
in  women  Karin  Michaelis  has  aptly  explained 
in  her  "Dangerous  Age." 

Only  that  the  sexual  guiding  principle  is  not 
the  exclusive  or  even  most  essential  one  as  is  at- 
tempted to  infer  from  a  biologic  point  of  view, 
but  it  must  be  looked  upon  as  a  form  of  expres- 
sion similar  to  other  forms  of  desire  if  one  is  to 
face  the  facts  squarely. 

The  climacteric  neurosis  shows  us  accordingly 
only  a  different  phase  of  the  neurosis  caused  by 
the  masculine  protest,  and  the  traits  of  character 
demonstrable  in  it  resemble  the  hypostasizations 
already  familiar  to  us.  I  have  never  seen  a  case 
where  the  neurosis  became  first  manifested  at  the 
climacterium.  And  it  is  to  be  expected  accord- 
ing to  our  thesis  that  the  "climacteric"  neurosis 
had  already  shown  its  face  in  former  days,  at 
times,  in  a  mild  manner,  especially  when  favorable 
circumstances  or  cultural  activitv  were  able  to  les- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       161 

sen  the  attack  through  a  partial  gratification  of 
the  craving  for  power.  Mostly  one  finds  a  grad- 
ually progressive  intensification  and  spreading  of 
the  neurotic  symptoms  of  some  years  duration, 
which  an  antecedently  necessitated  intensification 
of  the  craving  for  security  permits  of  detection. 
An  example  of  this  would  be  the  transformation 
of  headache  and  occasional  migraine  into  a  trifa- 
cial neuralgia.  On  the  intensification  of  a  neu- 
rotic cautiousness  into  anxiety  and  occasionally 
through  the  discounting  of  an  anticipated  dis- 
aster, into  melancholy.  For  these  three  steps  of 
protection  one  must  consult  the  schema  contained 
in  the  theoretical  part. 

caution:  for  instance,  as  if  I  may  lose  my 
money,  I  may  be  beneath. 

ANXIETY :  as  if  I  will  lose  my  money,  I  will  be 
beneath. 

MELANCHOLY :  as  if  I  had  lost  my  money,  as  if 
I  were  beneath. 

In  other  words,  the  stronger  the  feeling  of  in- 
feriority, the  more  intensified  the  fiction  becomes 
and  the  more  closely  it  approaches  a  dogma, 
through  an  increasing  abstraction  from  reality. 
And  the  patient  approximates  and  handles  every- 
thing which  brings  him  nearer  to  his  guiding 
principle.  Reality  is  along  with  this  depreciated 
in  various  degrees,  and  the  corrective  routes  be- 
come more  and  more  inadequate. 


162  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

One  not  infrequently  sees  cases  in  which  there 
come  to  hght  neurotic  lihenomena  in  the  patho- 
genic periods  ah-eady  known  to  us  something  on 
the  order  of  an  experiment.  Kisch  and  others 
have  called  attention  to  this  anamnestic  data  of 
neurotic  complaints  formed  at  the  onset  of 
puberty.  More  frequently  one  finds  in  the 
anamnesis  neurotic  molimina  menstrualia,  or  neu- 
roses before  entering  the  marriage  state,  in  the 
puerperium,  or  even  continuously. 

After  these  considerations,  we  shall  have  to  let 
the  various  guiding  principles  described  by  us 
coordinate  themselves  with  the  prime  guiding 
principle.  The  neurosis  of  aged  people  is  only 
a  different  phase,  an  adaptive  psychic  super- 
structure built  up  upon  the  one  elementary  direc- 
tive principle — I  wish  to  be  a  man.  And  this 
directive  principle,  which  has  been  outrightly 
condemned  to  destruction,  avails  itself  of  all  man- 
ner of  disguise,  without  ever  finding  a  satisfac- 
tory one.  Frequently  the  impression  they  make 
is  one  of  great  helplessness  of  resignation,  as 
though  the  patient  wanted  to  say  he  knew  not  how 
to  go  about  the  thing.  In  all  their  plans  doubt 
is  prominent — vacillation  never  leaves  them, 
along  with  this,  however,  one  sees  exaggerated 
explanations  as  if  the  patients  wished  to  convince 
themselves  that  they  are  too  old,  or  that  they  are 
still  young.     The  tendency  is  toward  the  gaining 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       163 

of  power,  influence,  worth.  But  the  feehng,  that 
they  want  the  unattainable,  never  leaves  them. 
In  the  dreams  one  regularly  finds  the  endeavor 
to  assist  the  masculine  protest  towards  expres- 
sion, to  be  young,  to  obtain  sexual  gratification, 
to  show  itself  in  a  nude  state,  always,  however, 
albeit  at  times  well  masked,  the  desire  to  be  a 
man.  Also  the  traits  of  character,  the  secondary 
guiding  principles,  show  the  influence  of  the 
craving  for  security. 

Pedantry,  avarice,  envy,  craving  for  domi- 
nancy,  and  the  desire  to  be  popular,  manifest 
themselves  often  in  this  disguised  manner.  Anx- 
iety is  frequently  found,  it  seems,  as  proof  that 
they  cannot  be  alone.  And  in  consummation, 
the  neurotic  symptoms  force  the  entire  house- 
hold under  the  regime  of  the  patient.  Often  the 
attempt  is  made  in  a  more  or  less  timorous  con- 
cealed manner  to  realize  a  certain  wish,  as  though 
in  that  event  the  masculine  protest  were  assured. 

Frequently  this  wish  manifests  itself  in  a  de- 
sire for  divorce,  or  to  move  to  a  large  city,  or  to 
humiliate  the  sons-in-law  or  the  daughters-in-law 
as  if  tranquillity  might  be  hoped  for  in  that  event. 

Difficulties  in  taking  food,  or  in  emptying  the 
bowels,  or  fragmentary  manifestations  of  imag- 
inary pregnancies  and  childbirths  are  not  rare. 
Along  with  this  they  bring  into  use  forgetf ulness, 
tremulousness,  here  and  there  an  occasional  trau- 


164  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

matic  incident,  all  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  to 
the  attention  of  themselves  and  others  their  grow- 
ing helplessness. 

Complaints  constantly  recur,  every  unpleasant 
incident  serves  a  special  significance,  and  their 
thoughts  are  constantly  directed  toward  an  ap- 
proaching evil.  The  demonstrative  emphasizing 
of  their  suffering  and  their  hesitating  attitude 
serve  on  the  one  hand  to  throttle  their  social  cir- 
cle, while  on  the  other  hand  it  is  useful  for  the 
initiation  of  their  withdrawal  from  society  in  the 
event  of  a  painful  anticipation  of  a  setback. 
Psychologically  this  complaint  may  also  be 
looked  upon  as  a  form  of  the  revolt,  of  the  mas- 
culine protest  against  a  feeling  of  inferiority,  it 
is  intended  to  soften  and  weaken  those  about 
them. 

Treatment  meets  with  considerable  difficulties, 
inasmuch  as  the  attainment  of  independence  is 
much  more  difficult  in  advanced  age,  and  promis- 
ing predictions  cannot  be  so  plausibly  made.  As 
always  is  the  case,  the  personality  of  the  psycho- 
therapeutist  as  well  as  any  actual  or  possible  suc- 
cesses of  his  are  utilized  to  spur  on  envy,  and  thus 
it  frequently  happens  that  improvements  serve 
to  give  rise  to  relapses.  Then,  too,  the  readily 
attainable  authority  over  them  serves  to  disturb 
the  equilibrium  of  these  patients,  inasmuch  as 
never  in  their  life  were  they  able  to  adjust  them- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       165 

selves  readily  or  what  is  more,  subordinate  them- 
selves. As  a  last  refuge  in  severe  cases,  the  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  physician  following  a  thorough 
analysis  recommends  itself,  so  that  one  is  obliged 
to  own  up  to  an  apparent  failure  of  his  part  of 
the  treatment,  and  offer  the  laurels  to  some  other 
therapeutic  method.  In  two  of  my  cases,  this 
expedient  justified  itself,  in  the  one  case  the  pa- 
tient, a  female,  was  cured  through  the  medium 
of  correspondence  by  a  Bosnian  country  phy- 
sician; in  the  other,  a  case  of  trifacial  neuralgia 
of  long  standing  which  I  had  been  treating  for 
two  years  with  varying  success  recovered  follow- 
ing suggestions  given  against  me  in  the  wakeful 
state.  In  most  of  these  cases,  considerable  im- 
provement, remissions,  or  even  complete  recov- 
eries set  in  of  their  own  accord  following  the 
termination  of  the  treatment. 

One  of  my  patients,  a  fifty-six-year-old  lady, 
had  been  suffering  for  eighteen  years  from  anx- 
iety states,  dizziness,  nausea,  abdominal  pains 
and  severe  obstipation.  A  considerable  portion 
of  this  period  was  spent  either  in  bed  or  lying  on 
a  sofa,  especially  during  the  last  eight  years  when 
severe  pains  in  the  back  and  limbs  added  to  her 
complaints.  The  patient  had  been  previously  a 
robust  woman  but  at  the  age  of  eighteen  had  ap- 
parently suffered  for  months  from  joint  rheuma- 
tism. 


166  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Her  present  condition  appeared  to  be  psycho- 
genetic  in  nature,  inasmuch  as  there  was  an  ab- 
sence of  corresponding  organic  changes,  and  the 
protective  traits  of  character  ^  discovered  by  me 
were  easily  demonstrable. 

The  advice  of  a  hysterectomy  by  a  prominent 
gynecologist  because  of  some  perimetritic  ad- 
hesions I  did  not  take  into  account  since  I  have 
learned  to  understand  from  other  cases,  the  eti- 
ologic  significance  of  such  maiming  procedures 
in  the  neuroses  influencing  as  they  do  the  psyche 
indirectly. 

Changes,  manifestations  of  arrests  of  develop- 
ment, deformities  and  disease  of  the  genitals  are 
frequently  found  in  neurotics.  A.  Bossi  cer- 
tainly is  correct  in  emphasizing  this  relationship 
as  I  had  already  done  before  in  my  "Studie" 
(1907).  This  relationship,  however,  lies  either 
in  the  adjustment  of  a  special  feeling  of  inferior- 
ity which  in  the  presence  of  a  neurotic  predisposi- 
tion gives  occasion  for  the  development  of  a  neu- 
rosis or  because  the  neurosis,  developed  as  result 
of  other  causes,  requires  a  protective  allusion  to 
an  organic  change,  in  order  to  start  upon  the  road 
the  fixed  goal  of  the  masculine  protest. 

Sexual  inferiority  becomes,  so  to  speak,  the 

iThe  diiferential-dlagnostic  significance  of  these  is  beyond 
doubt.  Only  one  must  regularly  take  into  account  the  simultane- 
ous existence  of  an  organic  affection. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       167 

vehicle  which  especially  forces  itself  upon  one's 
attention  when  slight  changes  or  even  wholly 
imagined  fictitious  ones  such  as  a  supposed  loss 
of  the  clitoris,  enlargement  of  the  labia-majora, 
moistening  of  the  apertures,  telling  evidences  of 
masturbation  or  anomalies  of  the  hairy  growth, 
phimoses,  paraurethral  passages  and  asymmetric 
posture  of  the  penis  or  testicles,  or  cryptorchism 
are  taken  as  an  occasion  for  a  symbol  of  the  feel- 
ing of  inferiority. 

This  patient's  disease  began  during  a  game  of 
tennis.  One  year  before  this  one  of  her  daugh- 
ters died,  and  her  husband,  a  great  lover  of  chil- 
dren, wished  to  have  more  children.  The  patient 
who  from  her  earliest  childhood  had  bewailed  her 
lot,  and  wished  to  be  a  man,  was  not  at  all  in- 
clined to  gratify  this  wish  of  her  husband.  The 
pain  which  was  probably  caused  by  a  twist  gave 
her  new  food  for  this  indistinctly  conscious  re- 
sistance, since  that  time  she  could  not  stand  any 
pressure  on  the  abdomen,  her  abdomen  became 
for  her  a  dainty  part  and  by  means  of  a  further 
bringing  into  use  of  insomnia  and  nausea,  the 
latter  as  a  memento  of  pregnancy,  she  brought 
matters  to  a  point  where  the  husband,  upon  the 
advice  of  physicians,  abandoned  sexual  concourse 
with  her,  and  used  a  separate  bedroom. 

Already  her  recital  with  reference  to  the  rheu- 
matism was  characteristic.     She  blamed  her  dead 


168  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

mother  for  everything.  The  latter,  she  com- 
plained, forced  her  to  wash  and  iron  in  the  pa- 
ternal home,  always  slighted  her  before  the  other 
sisters,  and  even  in  later  years  she  was  treated  in 
the  same  hard-hearted  manner.  This  woman's 
greediness  brought  her  into  some  difficulties. 
But  her  troubles,  however,  she  attributed  to  her 
father,  so  that  the  latter  also  received  his  share 
of  the  blame. 

Such  reproaches  against  the  parents  regularly 
draw  attention  according  to  my  experience  to  an- 
other kind  of  reproach  which  the  child  is  secretly 
making  against  the  parents,  when  it  finds  itself 
incomplete,  or  what's  more,  unmanly.  Such  re- 
proaches become  abstract  later  on,  as  I  have 
shown  it  to  be  likewise  true  of  the  feeling  of  guilt, 
and  in  later  life  serve  the  purpose,  so  to  speak, 
of  shells  to  be  filled  up  with  different  content. 
Thus  it  later  on  sounds  as  if  the  parents  were  not 
affectionate  enough,  or  that  they  pampered  the 
child,  or  that  especially  during  the  masturbation 
period  they  did  not  supervise  him  sufficiently. 
In  short,  we  observe  in  these  formulations  of  an 
attitude  towards  the  parents  and  later  on  towards 
the  world,  formal  changes  such  as  are  in  line  with 
guiding  principles  which  are  to  serve  a  practical 
purpose,  and  we  frequently  see  a  different  guise 
cut  according  to  the  pattern  of  the  actual  situ- 
ation.    It  is  then  necessary  to  retrace  the  steps 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       169 

covered  by  the  formal  change.  Here  the  ana- 
lytical method  makes  use  of  the  medium  of  re- 
duction, of  simplification  (Nietzsche)  of  abstrac- 
tion. Along  with  the  formal  change  accentu- 
ations or  attenuations  of  the  guiding  fiction 
play  an  important  role.  The  more  insecure  the 
patient  feels  himself,  the  more  he  is  driven  by  an 
unconscious  tendency  towards  an  intensification 
of  his  guiding  principle,  to  make  himself  depend- 
ent upon  it.  I  readily  follow  here  the  worthy 
views  of  Vaihinger,  who  maintains  for  the  history 
of  ideas,  that  historically  considered  they  show  a 
tendency  to  grow  from  a  fiction  (an  unreal  but 
practically  useful  safety-device)  to  hypotheses 
and  later  to  dogmas.  This  change  of  intensity 
characterizes  in  a  general  way  individual  psychol- 
ogy, the  thinking  of  the  normal  individual  (fic- 
tion as  an  expedient)  of  the  neurotic  (attempt 
to  realize  the  fiction)  and  of  the  insane  (incom- 
plete but  protective  anthropomorphism  and  real- 
ization of  the  fiction:  dogmatization). 

The  stronger  inner  need  seeks  adjustment 
through  an  intensification  of  the  assuring  guiding 
principles.  We  will  therefore  regularly  find 
equivalents  of  the  neurotics'  and  psychotics'  guid- 
ing principles  and  characteristics  in  the  normal 
individual,  which  in  the  latter  may  become  cor- 
rected  in  order  that  they  may  be  able  to  approach 
reality  without  contradiction.     If  we  were  to  re- 


170  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

duce  the  manifest  guiding  princij)les  of  this  pa- 
tient, and  free  them  of  the  various  changes  of 
form  and  intensity  which  they  have  undergone, 
so  that  we  may  take  them  in  the  original,  not  in 
the  form  developed  later  on,  it  would  read,  "I 
am  a  woman  and  want  to  be  a  man."  The  nor- 
mal individual,  too,  adjusts  himself  throughout 
life  in  accordance  with  this  formula.  It  aids  him 
in  attaching  himself  to  our  masculine  culture,  yes, 
it  furnishes  the  latter  with  a  steady  impetus  to- 
wards masculization  (Vermannlichung).  But 
here  it  plays  a  role  similar  to  the  Hilfslinie  in  a 
geometric  construction.  So  soon  as  the  object, 
a  higher  manly  niveau  is  attained,  it  is  lost  from 
consideration  (Vaihinger).  Concerning  the 
myth,  a  guiding  principle  of  the  race,  Nietzsche 
laments  its  transformation  into  the  fairy  tale  and 
demands  a  transformation  into  the  manly  (Mann- 
liche).  The  neurotic  emphasizes  this  fiction, 
takes  it  altogether  too  literally,  and  endeavors  to 
bring  about  its  realization. 

His  object  is  not  the  dovetailing,  the  adjust- 
ment of  his  masculine  prestige,  but  to  give  it 
value,  which  is  mostly  unattainable  in  its  over- 
strained form  or  because  of  intrinsic  contradic- 
tions in  the  masculine  protest,  or  is  hindered  in 
its  attainment  because  of  the  fear  of  a  threaten- 
ing defeat,  the  patient  still  remaining  ignorant 
of  the  significance  and  scope  of  his  largely  un- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       171 

conscious  fiction.  But  his  more  intense  feeling 
of  uncertainty  and  inferiority  also  hinders  him 
in  the  proper  estimation  of  his  fiction.  The  in- 
sane man  conducts  himself  as  if  his  fiction  were  a 
reality.  He  acts  under  the  most  intense  urgency 
and  delivers  himself  unto  his  self-created  deity, 
which  he  apperceives  as  real.  In  a  similar  man- 
ner he  simultaneously  feels  himself  to  be  woman 
and  superman,  the  latter  as  a  reaction  of  the  ex- 
aggerated masculine  protest.  The  splitting  of 
the  personality  corresponds  to  the  psychic  her- 
maphroditism, the  formal  change  being  a  mani- 
fold one,  manifests  itself  for  the  instant  in  the 
combination  of  ideas  of  persecution  and  grand- 
eur, of  depression  and  mania,  whereas  fixation 
as  self-protection,  is  made  facile  through  a  rela- 
tive insufficiency  or  absolute  weakness  of  the  cor- 
rective paths.  If  one  were  to  remove  from 
Freud's  equation  of  dementia  ("Yearbook," 
Bleuler-Freud,  1911)  the  introduced  sexualiza- 
tion,  if  one  were  to  shorten  it  on  both  sides  of  the 
superfluous  libido  factor,  our  much  more  pro- 
found formula  of  the  psychic  hermaphroditism 
with  the  masculine  protest  comes  to  the  surface, 
against  which,  missing  entirely  its  true  signifi- 
cance, Freud  argues  in  his  work. 

To  come  back  to  the  case  history,  it  still  re- 
mains to  be  mentioned  that  our  patient  in  her 
feeling   of   insufficiency   brought   forth  various 


172  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

forms  of  the  masculine  protest.  Thus  she  was 
unable  to  bring  herself  to  remain  tolerant  of 
men's  accomplishments.  In  this  regard,  she 
could  be  quite  critical,  especially  when  some  one 
tried  to  overestimate  himself.  In  these  cases  it 
not  infrequently  happens  that  physicians  with  a 
self-confident  demeanor,  which  appears  to  be  an 
essential  to  some  in  the  treatment  of  disease,  are 
antagonized  by  the  patient  with  neurotic  impetu- 
ousness  and  with  the  same  means.  In  this  case, 
she  was,  aside  from  this,  naturally  guided  by  a 
sort  of  instinct  which  forbade  her  to  adopt  the 
physician's  instructions,  out  of  respect  to  the  pur- 
pose of  her  disease.  But  at  times  matters  reached 
such  a  point  where  a  harmless  gain  of  influence 
over  her  by  the  physician  was  responded  to  by 
vomiting  and  nausea,  in  connection  with  which 
the  patient  never  missed  a  chance  to  call  atten- 
tion to  the  unsuccessful  effort  of  the  physician. 
One  need  not  lose  one's  tranquillity  on  account 
of  this  sort  of  manifestation,  one  must  rather  see 
in  them  a  part  of  the  entire  whole,  a  formal 
change  of  the  original  envy  of  man  and  later  of 
every  one  believed  to  be  superior. 

Along  with  tftis  our  patient  made  extensive  use 
of  certain  privileges  given  her  by  her  illness. 
First  of  all  she  was  able  to  withdraw  herself  as 
much  as  she  wished  to  from  the  social  duties  im- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       173 

posed  upon  her  by  the  role  of  housewife  and  im- 
portant personage  of  a  provincial  city. 

'Tis  true  she  received  visitors,  to  whom  she 
complained  of  her  sufferings,  but  only  exception- 
ally returned  a  call,  thus  assuring  herself  as  is 
the  case  regularly  with  neurotics,  of  a  favored  and 
privileged  position.  Along  with  this  it  was  pos- 
sible to  avoid  comparisons  and  musterings,  in  one 
sense  also  trials,  occasions  for  which  social  activi- 
ties furnish  as  a  rule.  Of  late  years  she  has  be- 
sides been  frightened  by  the  idea  that  she  was 
being  robbed  as  a  result  of  her  growing  age,  of 
the  possibilities  of  wielding  influence  over  men. 
A  lady  friend  demonstrated  to  her  very  inti- 
mately how  ridiculously  society  looks  upon 
youthful  conduct  in  an  aging  woman.  Thus  she 
decided  by  her  way  of  dressing  to  lay  special  em- 
phasis on  her  age,  but  at  the  same  time  the  bitter 
thought  crowded  itself  to  the  surface  of  her  con- 
sciousness that  men  of  her  age  are  by  no  means 
pushed  into  the  corner. 

At  all  times  she  felt  bitterly  the  fact  that  she 
had  to  spend  her  life  in  a  provincial  city.  In- 
stinct ivelj'-  she  strove  in  many  ways  for  a  removal 
to  Vienna.  However,  this  was  not  to  be  at- 
tained in  an  open  battle  with  her  husband,  who 
was  many  years  her  senior,  because  he  disarmed 
her  with  his  inexhaustible  affection  and  his  com- 


V 


174  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

pliance  in  all  other  matters.  She  quarreled  most 
bitterly  with  her  brother  and  arranged  an  unbe- 
lievable anxiety  of  meeting  this  brother  in  this 
small  town.  When  this  did  not  suffice  to  bring 
about  her  object,  she  developed  a  most  obstinate 
insomnia,  as  the  most  important  cause  of  which 
she  blamed  the  nightly  rattling  of  wagons  before 
the  windows  of  her  bedroom.  Thus  she  brought 
about  a  temporary  removal  to  Vienna,  acquired  a 
home  in  the  neighborhood  of  her  daughter,  the 
heavenly  peacefulness  of  which  she  constantly 
emphasized,  and  where  she  likewise  regained  her 
sleep. 

Ever  since  her  daughter  lived  in  Vienna,  the 
small  provincial  city  became  progressively  more 
obnoxious  to  her.  The  analysis  revealed  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  other  directive  principles  that 
she  intensely  envied  her  daughter's  prestige  with 
which  there  was  also  associated  an  aristocratic 
predicate. 

She,  too,  wanted  to  live  in  Vienna,  and  would 
have  brought  this  about  long  ago,  had  not  a  new 
danger  threatened  her  in  Vienna,  namely,  to  have 
to  cover  her  daughter's  expenses  with  her  own 
means. 

The  rivalry  with  this  Viennese  daughter  was 
wholly  contained  in  her  unconscious,  and  corre- 
sponded with  an  infantile  guiding  line,  the  wish 
to  surpass  her  pampered  older  sister.     This  guid- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       175 

ing  principle,  too,  was  found  to  be  an  equivalent 
of  the  basic  one,  which  strove  toward  the  attain- 
ment of  greater  worth,  as  if  she  were  a  man. 

On  account  of  the  heavy  expenditures  whicH 
her  residence  in  Vienna  imposed  upon  her  there 
arose  a  contradiction  in  her  masculine  protest. 
The  neurotic  with  his  torturing  feeling  of  inade- 
quacy does  not  allow  anything  to  be  taken  from 
him  without  suffering  for  it. 

He  apprehends  a  further  belittling  (Verkiir- 
zung)  as  a  lowering  of  his  ego-consciousness  and 
along  with  his  guiding  principle  in  such  a  way  as 
if  this  were  a  castration,  an  eff  eminization,  a  sex- 
ual assault  at  times  also  in  the  image  of  a  preg- 
nancy or  birth.^ 

In  our  case  the  analogous  sensations  of  preg- 
nancy came  especially  to  the  surface,  nausea,  ab- 
dominal cramps  and  fixed  ideas  of  an  existing 
pregnancy  made  themselves  felt,  pains  in  the 
limbs  represented  a  phlegmasia  alba  dolens, 
whereas  an  obstinate  obstipation  symbolized  in 
part  a  vaginismus  in  the  anal  language,  in  part 

2  Thus  it  is  that  the  thought  process  takes  place  not  along  real- 
ity, but  depends  on  analogous  sjTnbols,  whose  falsifying  aflFective 
accompaniment  heightens  the  aggressive  preparedness  of  the 
neurotic.  The  latter,  however,  corresponds  to  the  unconscious, 
guiding  "opinion."  This  disguise,  the  symbol,  the  analogy  are  as 
a  device  in  the  service  of  the  aggressiveness  to  which  the  ego-ideal 
of  the  neurotic  compels. 

The  woman  as  a  Sphinx,  the  man  as  a  murderer,  etc. 


176  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

attempting  to  prevent  expenditures  symbolically, 
and  thirdly  attempted  to  express  the  impossibility 
of  an  independent  conduct. 

A  more  profound  understanding  of  the  mode 
of  expression  of  the  neurosis  appears  to  me  to  be 
impossible  without  the  knowledge  of  the  "organ- 
jargon"  discovered  by  me.  Folklore  takes  cog- 
nizance of  this  in  the  expression  of  popular  speech 
and  custom.  Freud  misunderstood  this  jargon, 
and  has  created  out  of  its  constructions  the  main- 
stay of  his  libido-theory,  namely  the  theory  of 
the  erogenous  zones.  Especially  his  work  on  the 
anal  character  and  analerotic  is  full  of  a  strained 
and  overworked  phantasy.  The  point  of  outset 
is  the  relative  inferiority  of  certain  organs,  the 
attitude  of  the  environment  towards  the  mani- 
festations of  these  organs  as  well  as  the  mass- 
impressions  of  the  two  upon  the  soul  of  the  child. 
Neurotically  predisposed  children  will  endeavor 
to  associate  with  suitable  manifestations  of  their 
organ-inferiority  especially  with  defects  of  child- 
hood, those  traits  of  character  which  have  their 
origin  in  their  protesting  ego-consciousness,  such 
as  obstinacy,  greater  need  of  affection,  exagger- 
ated cleanliness,  pedantry,  anxiousness,  ambition, 
envy,  revengefulness,  etc.,  in  order  to  gain  an 
especially  effective  representation.  One  of  my 
psychogenic  epileptics  utilized  for  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  his  masculine  protest  such  a  device, 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       177 

an  interlacing,  so  to  speak,  inasmuch  as  he  man- 
aged to  have  most  of  his  attacks  preceded  by  an 
attack  of  obstipation  in  order  to  arouse  anxious 
forebodings  in  his  relatives  and  thus  bring  him- 
self to  their  notice  in  the  event  of  a  degradation. 

Obstinacy  and  infantile  negativism  may  al- 
ready be  well  developed  towards  the  end  of  the 
nursing  period.  It  is  the  association  of  these 
anomahes  of  urination,  defecation,  and  eating, 
which  gives  rise  to  the  heightened  "reasoning." 
The  child  who  abstains  from  emptying  his  bowels 
derives  his  pleasurable  sensations  not  from  an 
irritation  of  the  rectum,  but  from  the  satisfaction 
of  his  obstinacy  which  avails  itself  of  this  unes- 
thetic  means,  but  may,  however,  attribute  a  pleas- 
ure-quality to  rectal  sensations  for  years,  up  to 
the  curing  of  his  obstinacy. 

The  mother  of  a  nearly  two-year-old  girl  who 
was  still  suffering  from  bed-wetting  told  me  that 
she  had  frequently  observed  that  when  awakened 
from  her  sleep  her  child  would  attend  properly 
to  the  emptying  of  the  bladder,  providing  she  was 
still  in  a  half-wakeful  state  only,  but  no  sooner 
did  she  become  fully  awake  than  she  refused  to 
do  so.  If  the  child  became  fully  awake  towards 
the  end  of  urination,  she  upset  the  urinal  and 
cried  a  long  time  out  of  rage  at  being  thus  taken 
unawares ;  if,  on  the  other  hand,  she  still  continued 
half  asleep  she  turned  over  and  went  fast  asleep. 


178  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Thus  we  may  find  in  every  case  that  from  the 
very  earliest  period  of  existence  the  ego-con- 
sciousness of  the  child  finds  itself  in  a  manifest 
and  latent  contrast  with  its  environment,  that  it 
assumes  a  most  pronounced  attitude  of  hostility 
and  belligerency  until  it  finally  brings  about  a 
uniform  termination  of  all  these  aggressive  stim- 
uli, until  it  constructs  these  into  the  masculine 
protest  which  it  brings  in  opposition  to  the  stim- 
uli of  tenderness,  subordinacy,  and  weakness,  as 
well  as  to  the  manifestations  of  inferiority,  all  of 
which  it  collectively  apperceives  and  combats  as 
symptoms  of  femininity.  Only  that  at  times  an 
interlacing  and  intertwining  takes  place,  where 
the  masculine  protest  lays  stress  upon  feminine 
symptoms  in  order  to  utilize  them  as  a  bugbear, 
or  where  he  obstinately  retains  feminine  symp- 
toms and  this  makes  possible  the  development  of 
hermaphrodistic  constructions  which  likewise 
exert  their  influence  in  the  direction  of  the  mascu- 
line protest.  For  example,  tears,  indispositions, 
simulations  and  exaggerations  of  childhood  de- 
fects. The  overaccentuated  guiding  principle, 
namely,  "I  wish  to  be  a  man,"  enlists  then  within 
its  ranks  all  utilizable  bodily  symptoms,  particu- 
larly those  manifestations  of  inferioritj''  upon 
which  the  attention  of  the  patient  as  well  as  that 
of  the  environment  is  especially  directed. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       179 

Thus  it  happens  that  the  mascuhne  protest 
makes  use  of  a  "somatic  language"  for  the  pur- 
pose of  gaining  expression.  A  beautiful  exam- 
ple, one  which  frequently  recurs  in  neurotic  phan- 
tasies is  that  of  Leonardo  da  Vinci's  childhood 
phantasy:  "A  vulture  repeatedly  shoved  its  tail 
into  his  mouth."  This  phantasy  carries  the  art- 
ist's psychic  constellation  to  a  most  accurate  ab- 
straction. Mouth  phantasies  are  regularly  re- 
lated to  manifestations  of  inferiority  in  the  child's 
gastro-intestinal  tract.  Leonardo's  inclinations 
to  a  science  of  nutrition  were  most  likely  the  fruits 
of  the  attention  directed  to  these  channels. 

The  tail  of  the  vulture  is  a  phallic  symbol.  A 
summing  up  of  these  two  trends  brings  forth  the 
characteristic  basic  idea,  "I  will  experience  the 
lot  of  the  woman."  But  this  rigid  adherence  to  a 
symbolic  guiding  principle  already  draws  our  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  these  and  similar  trends 
of  thought  do  not  signify  a  psychic  settlement 
but  serve,  under  the  pressure  of  our  masculine 
culture,  for  a  heightened  impetus  in  the  opposite 
direction,  must  lead  to  an  over  compensation  to- 
ward the  masculine  side,  where  they  evolve  the 
masculine  guiding  principle  the  more  distinctly, 
"therefore  I  must  act  in  such  a  manner  as  if  I 
were  a  complete  man." 

That  these  two  guiding  principles  contradict 


180  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

one  another,  aside  from  the  fact  that  each  indi- 
vidually is  a  contradiction  to  reality,  in  so  far  as 
they  are  taken  literally  and  not  as  something 
useful  and  corrigible,  I  have  already  set  forth  in 
my  contribution  on  the  "Psychic  hermaphroditism 
in  life  and  in  the  neurosis"  ( "Fortschritte  der 
Medizin,"  Leipzig,  1908). 

This  contradiction  is  reflected  in  doubt,  in  inde- 
cision, and  in  fear  of  making  decisions,  the  analy- 
sis of  which  reveals  more  or  less  the  fact  that 
there  existed  in  early  childhood  an  uncertainty  as 
to  the  future  sexual  role,  in  the  psychic  super- 
structure of  which  all  later  sensations,  feelings 
and  stimuli  were  grouped  in  a  certain  sense  as 
doubtful,  "I  don't  know  whether  I  am  a  man  or  a 
woman"  (see  "Predispositions  to  Neurosis," 
Year  Book,  Bleuler-Freud,  1909). 

Our  patient  expressed  in  the  anal  language 
that  she  had  closed  up  an  opening.  A  distinctly 
feminine  thought.  One  may  picture  to  himself 
a  group  of  men  and  women  dressed  in  women's 
clothes  gathered  in  a  room  into  which  a  mouse 
was  suddenly  let  loose.  The  women  will  at  once 
betray  their  sex  in  that  they  will  draw  their 
clothes  around  their  legs,  as  if  they  tried  to  pre- 
vent the  mouse  from  entering.  In  the  same 
manner,  the  feminine  frightening  guiding  princi- 
ple is  betrayed  by  a  fear  of  holes,  of  being  bitten, 
stabbed,  ideas  of  persecution  by  men,  by  bulls, 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       181 

the  position  of  the  back,  the  being  pulled  to  the 
right,  backwards,  to  be  pressed  upon,  to  fall, 
etc.,  a  guiding  principle  which  is  readily  reacted 
to  with  an  insuring  anxiety.^ 

Obstipation  as  a  neurotic  symptom  takes  its 
origin  in  a  hereditary  defect  of  the  intestines, 
which  leads  to  a  neurotic  closure  of  the  sphincter 
through  ideas  concerning  anal  birth  and  sexual 
relation.  As  a  matter  of  fact  this  patient  suf- 
fered in  her  childhood  from  intestinal  catarrh 
and  occasional  intestinal  incontinence,  later  from 
obstipation  and  a  recto-vaginal  fistula. 

That  the  closure  of  the  anus  was  under  the 
domination  of  a  guiding  idea  of  closing  of  cavities 
is  likewise  seen  from  the  fact  that  the  patient 
suffered  for  a  considerable  length  of  time  follow- 
ing her  marriage  from  vaginismus.  The  obsti- 
pation of  this  aging  woman  expresses  in  a  dual 
way  the  same  desire  as  did  her  erstwhile  vaginis- 
mus, namely,  "I  don't  want  to  be  a  woman,  I 
want  to  be  a  man." 

At  this  point  I  must  for  practical,  as  well  as 
for  theoretical  reasons  go  considerably  beyond 
the  scope  of  a  mere  character  delineation,  as  one 
is  for  that  matter  usually  compelled  to  take  into 
account  the  psyche  as  a  whole  in  every  discussion 

3  The  same  masculine  protest  leads  in  the  neurosis  to  trismus, 
blepharospasraus,  vaginismus,  spasm  of  the  sphincter,  globus  and 
spasm  of  vocal  cords. 


182  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  psychological  questions.  Besides  this  so  mi- 
nutely analyzed  case  furnishes  a  clearer  insight 
than  it  is  possible  to  gain  in  other  cases,  espe- 
cially where  because  of  a  dependence  upon  the 
physician  or  upon  extraneous  circumstances  a 
cure  or  discontinuance  of  the  treatment  takes 
place  before  the  scheme,  according  to  which  the 
patient  built  his  psychosis,  becomes  completely 
revealed.  Thus  I  will  attempt  to  set  forth  in  this 
case,  this  scheme,  by  arranging  according  to  this 
analytically  disclosed  scheme  all  her  symptoms, 
the  sentinels  opposite  the  outer  world,  and  show 
the  synthetic  relationship  of  the  traits  of  charac- 
ter with  it. 

According  to  this  scheme  (p.  184-6)  the  pa- 
tient arranged  all  her  experiences,  and  wherever 
they  fitted  at  all,  occasion  for  which  is  amply  fur- 
nished in  the  life  of  every  individual  by  his  sym- 
bolic as  well  as  purposive  apperceptions,  she 
reacted  to  them  with  the  appropriate  disease 
manifestations.  The  protective  traits  of  charac- 
ter were  pushed  to  the  fore,  like  outposts,  were 
ever  ready  for  defense,  and  explained  situations 
in  accordance  with  guiding  thoughts,  and  when- 
ever the  occasion  arose,  borrowed  support  from 
the  sum  total  of  the  appropriate  symptoms. 
Her  manifestations  of  independence  were  con- 
siderably interfered  with  by  the  intelligent  and 
tender  attitude  of  her  husband  and  by  certain 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       183 

benevolent  guiding  principles  of  the  patient. 
Thus  it  happened  that  the  basic  scheme,  "I'm 
only  a  woman,"  derived  its  influence  from  inten- 
tionally retained  impressions  of  the  feminine 
role,  in  connection  with  which  the  unconscious 
mechanism  of  the  masculine  guiding  thoughts 
furnished  the  protecting  memento.  The  healthy 
woman  is  characterized  by  a  more  conscious  atti- 
tude toward  the  feminine  role  by  a  purposive 
dovetailing  and  corrective  approximation  of  the 
scheme  to  reality.  The  psychosis  produced  an 
accentuation  of  the  imaginary  scheme  for  protec- 
tive purposes,  and  an  incorrigible  attitude  within 
this  scheme;  such  a  patient  will  conduct  herself 
as  if  she  really  were  pregnant.  In  all  three 
cases  the  fiction  of  pregnancy  and  the  greater 
circle  of  its  manifestations,  a  symbol  of  the  infe- 
rior feminine  role,  a  convincing  expression  for 
the  feeling  of  degradation,  but  at  the  same  time 
looked  upon  from  the  standpoint  of  the  mascu- 
line protest,  an  artifice  for  the  purpose  of  avoid- 
ing further  degradation,  as  was  shown  above.^ 

*The  transformation  of  the  masculine  fiction  may  reach  a  point 
where  under  its  direction  maternity,  pregnancy,  may  be  striven 
for,  quite  frequently  in  such  cases  where  obstacles  of  a  very  gross 
nature  exist.  The  cry  for  a  baby  is  then  regularly  directed 
against  the  man.  Phantom  pregnancies  frequently  represent  such 
an  arrangement. 


184  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 


SCHEME 


SYMPTOMS 


Fear  of  society. 


The       leaning 
from  the 

feminine 
role,  the  mas- 
culine     pro- 
test. 


Protective 
dexterities. 


Mistrust      (cre- 
dulity      with 
subsequent 
protest). 


Compulsive    blush- 

ing 

Fear       of       being 

Belittling  of 

alone. 

man. 

Palpitation   of   the 
heart. 

Protection 

Anxiousness. 
Bashfulness 

Fear     of     falling, 
dizziness  when  in 

against 
courting]. 

(timidity). 
Virtuous  mo- 

high places. 

rality. 
Desire  to  domi- 

nate (submis- 
sion with  sub- 
sequent    pro- 
test). 

Feeling     of    pres- 

sure in  the  stom- 

ach.    (Caecum.) 

Frigidity.        Over- 

acuity    of    hear- 

Protection 

Willfulness 

ing  of  husband's 

against 

Obstinacy. 

snoring. 

coitus. 

Vaginismus,    pres- 

<• 

sure      sensations 

over  the  breasts. 

AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       185 


Inability    to    stand 

any       kind       of 

pressure,          the 

struggle    against 

the  corset. 

A  feeling  of  being 

Disputatious- 

drawn      to      the 

Protection 

ness. 

right  and   down- 

against 

Tendencies  hos- 

ward      (towards 

^              coitus. 

tile      to     the 

the         feminine 

husband. 

side). 

Noises  in  the  ears. 

•(The     noise     of 

the    moving    sea. 

which  swells  and 

faUs.) 

Abdominal   pains. 

Shortness  of 

breath. 

Palpitation  of  the 
heart. 

Nausea. 

Vomiting. 

Compulsory  ideas 
of  pregnancy. 

Fatigue. 

Craving  for  cer- 
tain foods. 


Protection 
against 
pregnaacy. 


Somatic      over- 
sensitiveness. 

Hypochon- 
driacally  to 
pamper  one- 
self. 


Abdominal  cramps. 

Difficult  evacuation 
of  the  bowels, 
signifying  difB- 
cult  labor. 

Occasional  polyu- 
ria. (Passing  of 
the  waters.) 


Protection 
against 
parturition. 


186 


THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 


Objection  to  lying 
on  bed. 

Pain  in  legs. 

Tendency  to  pro- 
long   invalidism 


Weakness  in  limbs, 
reminding  one 
of  astasia  and 
abasia. 
Staggering  gait 
Easy  fatiguibUity 
in  walking. 


A  fiction 
of  a 

thrombo- 
phlebitis 


Protection 
against 
puerperium. 


A  memento 
of  leaving 
the  child- 
bed. 


A  hostile,  at  times 

sadistic    behavior 

towards  children. 

Rapid      fatigiiing. 

tiring  and  impa- 

tience in  the  care 

Protection 

of  children. 

against 

Insomnia. 

maternal 

Finickiness  in  mat- 

duties. 

ters    of    cleanli- 

ness. 

Over-acuteness     of 

hearing  at  night. 

Light  sleeping. 

Form  of  action 
of  a  complex 
tj^pe  for  the 
purpose  of 
doing  away 
with  the  infe- 
riority and 
degradation. 

Avarice,  thrift- 
iness,  envy, 
desire  to  dom- 
inate, im]ja- 
tience,  fear 
of  attaining 
nothing,  of 
completing 
nothing,  all 
sorts  of  exer- 
tions, as  if 
the  distance 
toward  equal- 
ity with  men 
were  to  be 
diminished  in 
any  possible 
way. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       187 

A  dream  which  took  place  towards  the  end  of 
the  treatment  shows  us  the  original  guiding 
thought  of  the  patient  in  connection  with  her 
actual  inner  conflicts.  She  dreamed:  "As  if 
she  were  sitting  on  a  bench  in  a  park  near  the 
residence  of  her  parents,  ill  and  weak.  She  wore 
on  her  head  two  bathing  caps.  Two  girls  then 
approached  from  behind  her  and  one  of  them 
tore  one  of  the  caps  from  her  head.  She  grabbed 
hold  of  the  girl  and  held  her  while  the  other  one 
disappeared  and  threatened  to  report  her  to  the 
police.  A  poor,  badly  clothed  woman  passed  by 
and  told  her  that  the  girl's  name  was  Velicha. 
At  this  point  she  went  to  her  mother  in  order  to 
complain.  Her  mother  gave  her  a  basket  full  of 
eggs  and  said  they  cost  5  giddens.  She  took  two 
of  the  eggs  in  her  hand  and  saw  that  they  were 
pretty." 

The  situation  on  the  bench;  her  fatigue  and 
the  bathing  caps  referred  to  a  hydropathic  treat- 
ment which  she  had  undertaken  especially  for  the 
removal  of  an  insomnia  prior  to  coming  under 
my  care.  On  the  day  preceding  the  dream  she 
reprimanded  her  daughter  because  the  latter 
used  her  bath  linen  for  her  own  use ;  she  also  pos- 
sessed two  bathing  caps,  as  in  the  dream,  which 
the  daughter  likewise  often  used.  Velicka  is  a 
Slavic  word  signifying  big.  The  daughter  had 
a  Slavic  "Adelspraedikat."     The  poorly-dressed 


188  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

woman  is  a  noblewoman  by  the  name  of  Grand- 
venire.  Opposed  to  the  two  is  she,  the  plebeian, 
degraded  one.  She  was  dissatisfied  because  her 
husband  was  not  knighted,  but  on  account  of  her 
pride  she  did  not  acknowledge  this  envy.  She 
was  afraid  that  the  daughter  might  be  able  to 
take  everything  away  from  her.  She  had  two 
daughters,  one  died,  disappeared.  She  often 
complained  to  me  that  her  daughter  cost  her 
much  money.  She  has  already  given  her  all  her 
jewelry.  From  her  very  childhood  she  has  al- 
ways been  degraded  before  others.  Even  her 
mother  always  humbled  her  and  demanded  pay- 
ment from  her  for  every  little  thing  after  the 
patient  had  become  married.  She,  on  the  other 
hand,  supplied  her  daughter  regularly  with  eggs, 
venison,  milk,  butter,  etc.,  and  still  she  needed  so 
much  money.  Before  she  left  for  Vienna  she 
forgot  to  settle  a  debt  of  5  guldens.  The  day 
previous  she  wrote  to  her  husband  that  he  should 
pay  this  at  once.  In  fact  she  always  had  to  pay 
at  once  for  everything  she  bought.^ 

The  mother  treated  her  badh^     In  the  dream 
she  recalled  a  forgotten  obligation.     She  always 

B  The  fear  to  become  humiliated  through  further  expenses  is 
closely  allied  to  the  utilization  of  the  character-type  of  greed  and 
parsimony.  These  maternal,  and  according  to  her  way  of  looking, 
feminine  traits,  she  avoided  through  a  compulsion  to  pay  before- 
hand and  showed  herself  to  be  superior  to  her  mother  through  her 
liberality. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       189 

saved  at  her  expense.  In  the  dream  she  re- 
ceived from  her  mother  the  masculine  attribute 
(testicles)  which  the  mother  kept  from  her  at  the 
time  of  birth.  We  see  again  how  out  of  the  feel- 
ing of  femininity  (degradation)  the  masculine 
protest  is  in  the  dream  directed  against  further 
insults.  This  dream  shows  us  the  attempt  of  the 
patient  to  evade  in  her  thoughts  further  degrada- 
tion and  to  accuse  her  daughter  that  like  her 
mother  she  kept  everything  from  her. 

Similarly,  this  lust  to  possess  everything  is 
found  in  the  following  case  history  which  shows 
still  more  clearly  than  the  preceding  case  how 
the  patient  on  account  of  his  pride  seeks  to  re- 
move this  lust  from  his  field  of  vision,  to  repress 
it.  We  shall  see  how  a  decided  change  takes 
place  through  the  revelation  of  this  repression 
and  through  the  elucidation  of  the  (Edipus  com- 
plex. In  the  same  manner  it  appears  from  all 
these  cases  that  this  lust  to  have  everything  pur- 
sues the  most  senseless  goals.  Such  patients 
have  eyes  for  everything  which  others  in  their 
circle  possess  in  so  far  as  they  are  excluded  from 
the  possession  of  the  same.  They  may  possess 
more  than  the  others  and  yet  they  will  envy  them. 
They  may  gain  ever}i;hing  which  they  formerly 
begi'udged  others  and  will  then  unceremoniously 
set  it  aside  in  order  to  furnish  new  goals  for  their 
desires  and  possessions.     And  their  lust  for  pes- 


190  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

session  ever  remains  attached  to  those  goals  which 
they  have  not  attained.  It  is  readily  understood 
that  they  are  incapacitated  for  love  and  friend- 
ship. Often  they  acquire  a  general  ability  to 
misrepresent  and  set  out  to  captivate  souls  be- 
cause others  also  dominate.  They  constantly 
fear  degradation  and  always  seek  to  assure  them- 
selves long  beforehand.  The  love  of  the  parents 
enjoyed  by  the  brother,  their  jewelry,  the  mar- 
riage of  a  brother  or  of  a  sister,  a  book,  an  accom- 
plishment of  an  acquaintance  or  even  of  a  total 
stranger,  fill  them  with  rage.^ 

The  superiority  of  another,  a  successfully 
passed  examination,  possession  or  worth  of  broth- 
ers and  sisters  throw  them  into  excitements, 
cause  them  headache,  insomnia  and  more  pro- 
nounced neurotic  symptoms.  Their  constant 
fear  not  to  become  the  equal  of  an  older  or 
younger  brother  may  render  them  unfit  for  work. 
It  is  then  that  they  attempt  to  avoid  all  decisions 
and  tests,  it  is  then  that  they  reach  the  stage  of 
loss  of  initiative,  approach  often  in  any  possible 
way  the  withdrawal  from  life  and  support  them- 
selves in  the  meanwhile  on  their  ad  hoc  created 
symptoms  among  which  there  came  to  my  atten- 

8  Thus  an  approaching  marriage  of  a  girl  may  lead  to  the  devel- 
opment of  a  neurosis  in  the  brother  or  father  when  the  latter  are 
neurotically  disposed.  Thus  the  arrangement  of  affection  may 
then  give  the  impression  of  incest  stirrings. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       191 

tion  frequently  compulsory  blushing,  migraine, 
all  sorts  of  headaches,  palpitation  of  the  heart, 
stuttering,  agoraphobia  and  claustrophobia, 
tremor,  sleepiness,  depression,  weakness  of  mem- 
ory, excessive  thirst  and  psychogenic  epilepsy. 

I  have  especially  emphasized  above  the  case  of 
the  younger  brother  because  I  met  with  him  of  ten- 
est  and  because  he  is  most  apt  to  be  driven  to 
rivalry/  This  case  is  not  an  exception.  One 
also  finds  in  this  role  older  siblings  or  only  chil- 
dren, naturally  also  girls.  The  rivalry  may  also 
be  directed  primarily  against  the  father  or  mother 
in  whose  picture  the  desired  superiority  appears 
to  be  concretely  represented.  It  is  then  that  the 
(Edipus-complex  develops  out  of  the  longing  of 
the  predisposed  child,  as  a  guiding  model,  a  guid- 
ing fiction  to  gain  satisfaction  for  his  craving,  and 
this  takes  place  at  a  time  when  sexual  craving  is 
still  out  of  the  question,  but  it  is  also  the  desire  to 
possess  a  person  or  an  object  which  belongs  to  an- 
other. A  belief  in  predestination  and  ideas  of 
identification  with  God  frequently  develop  as 
manifestations  of  the  masculine  protest.  Klep- 
tomania is  frequently  revealed  in  the  anamneses 
of  these  patients.  At  times  the  patient  is  uncon- 
scious of  his  guiding  principle.  Occasionally  he 
is  seen  at  work  trying  to  conceal  this  guiding  prin- 

TFrischauf,    "Psychology    of   the   Younger    Brother."    Munich, 
A.  Reinhardt,  1912. 


192  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ciple  and  to  make  it  unrecognizable  through  a 
manifestation  of  opposed  tendencies  such  as  lib- 
erality. 

The  wish  which,  for  instance,  draws  him  to  his 
mother,  changes  nothing  after  it  has  become  con- 
scious in  the  disease-picture,  no  matter  how 
frankly  sexual  it  may  be  shown  to  be.  It  is  only 
after  the  patient  understands  and  controls  his 
desire  for  the  unattainable,  for  that  which  in  the 
nature  of  things  belongs  to  another,  that  recov- 
ery may  take  place. 

The  boundless  pride  which  one  detects  in  some 
of  these  cases  does  not  readily  permit  the  patient 
to  gain  insight  into  his  envy  and  jealousy.  The 
tendency  to  belittle  others  is,  on  the  other  hand, 
quite  markedly  developed  and  readily  comes  to 
the  surface.  Mahce,  revengefulness,  desire  for 
intrigue  (and  in  those  of  lower  intelligence), 
more  crudely  aggressive  tendencies,  even  sadistic 
and  murder-instincts  reveal  themselves  as  at- 
tempts to  insure  oneself  against  a  degradation  in 
this  eternal  rivalry.  The  fear  of  the  conse- 
quences, such  as  a  lively  concern  about  the  needs 
of  relatives,  the  picturing  to  oneself  of  punish- 
ments, arrest  and  misery  are  appertaining  assur- 
ances against  the  ebullitions  of  the  masculine 
protest.  Even  epileptic  seizures  may  serve  as 
security  devices,  thus,  for  instance,  as  in  our 
case,  where  a  psycho-epileptic  insult  associated 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       193 

itself  with  patricidal  and  fratricidal  dream-stir- 
rings. 

It  is  possible  that  the  motive  of  a  "scorned 
love"  regularly  plays  a  role  in  these  cases,  and 
brings  about  the  most  intense  hate  against  the  un- 
attained  person.  One  may  justly  doubt  whether 
love  in  a  normal  person  is  capable  of  such  a  trans- 
formation. It  requires  the  sum-total  of  power- 
instincts,  the  over-heated  ego-consciousness  of 
these  individuals  to  desire  to  bring  about  the  spir- 
itual possession  of  another  person  against  that 
person's  will.  Inasmuch  as  the  neurotic  desires 
to  possess  everything,  he  is  blind  to  all  natural 
restrictions,  and  experiences  in  the  scorn  of  his 
love  a  thrust  at  his  most  sensitive  principle. 
Now  he  turns  to  revenge:  Acheronta  moveho. 

When  one  is  in  doubt  as  to  which  of  two  per- 
sons the  patient  has  selected  for  his  affections, 
whether  the  father  or  mother,  it  is  safe  to  assume 
that  it  is  the  opposite  to  the  one  the  patient  men- 
tions. It  would  be  too  painful,  as  a  rule,  to  ac- 
knowledge scorned  love.  An  exact  solution 
seems  to  me  to  be  furnished  by  the  following  sim- 
ple experiment: 

One  places  the  patient  exactly  between  the  two 
persons  in  question,  and  soon  one  observes  that 
he  has  moved  nearer  the  preferred  one. 

Thus  I  was  able  to  discover  in  the  case  which 
I  am  about  to  discuss  in  detail  that  the  patient 


194,  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

showed  decided  preference  for  his  mother,  though 
when  he  was  alone  he  always  gave  preference  to 
his  father.  He  not  infrequently  scolded  his 
mother,  and  not  a  day  passed  but  what  they  quar- 
reled. 

A  certain  manifestation  which  one  frequently 
observes  in  the  neuroses  was  likewise  present 
here,  and  in  an  especially  accentuated  form, 
namely,  the  strong  emphasis  of  a  pedantic  char- 
acter trait,  which,  not  unlike  the  "crack  regi- 
ment" in  war  time,  took  over  the  task  of  coming 
in  touch  with  the  enemy.  The  enemy  was  first 
of  all  the  mother,  and  the  daily  battles  regularly 
developed  because  the  latter  was  unable  to  do  full 
justice  to  the  patient's  pedantic  demands  in  eat- 
ing, in  dressing,  in  the  preparation  of  his  bath  or 
bed.  Our  patient  thus  gained  a  base  of  oper- 
ation— from  which  emanated  the  various  subter- 
fuges by  means  of  which  he  endeavored  to  place 
his  mother,  after  all,  completely  at  his  service. 
In  this  is  seen  again  a  neurotic  trait  of  character 
as  a  device,  by  means  of  which  the  patient  seeks 
to  be  true  to  his  inner  fiction,  to  dominate  his 
mother  in  the  same  manner  as  he  beheved  to  have 
observed  his  father  dominate  her.  "And  should 
you  be  imwilling,  I'll  use  force."  This  train  of 
thought  gained  stability  from  the  patient  in  his 
youth,  and  thus  he  at  once  assumed  towards  his 
mother  an  attitude  full  of  mistrust,  constantly 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       195 

on  the  alert  for  setbacks,  for  the  preferring  of 
others,  full  of  tense  energy  and  gloomy  expecta- 
tion whether  he  will  yet  succeed  in  gaining  her 
for  himself.  Not  because  he  really  loved  her,  or 
really  desired  to  possess  her,  but  because  his  de- 
sire for  possession  of  her  was  similar  to  the  desire 
which  he  had  for  many  other  things,  jewelry,  bon- 
bons, which  he  valued  not  at  all  highly,  but  left 
lying  in  a  drawer,  forgotten,  once  he  could  call 
them  his  own.  Thus  the  possession  of  the  mother 
was  not  an  end  in  itself,  his  desire  was  not  at  all 
a  libidinous  or  sexual  one,  but  the  mother  and  his 
distance  from  her  became  a  symbol  for  him,  an 
estimate  of  his  own  inferiority.  And  because  he 
apperceived  the  cosmic  picture,  every  new  ac- 
quaintance, every  relation  to  the  opposite  sex 
with  the  same  traits  of  character,  suspiciously, 
full  of  sensitiveness,  with  a  similar  expectation 
of  a  disappointment,  all  success  fled  from  him,  all 
satisfaction  in  life  was  lost  to  him.  He  had  eyes 
only  for  everji:hing  which  spoke  against  him, 
against  his  success,  and  whatever  he  did  attain 
lost  all  charm  for  him.  He  settled  the  problem 
of  his  life  with  the  arrangement  of  his  neurosis. 
He  considered  himself  deficient  by  a  whole  lot — 
and  this  deficiency  was  represented  in  the  sym- 
bolic loss  of  the  mother. 

Does  one  suppose  that  this  patient  who  had 
been  suffering  from  anxiety-states,  migraine  and 


196  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

depressions,  could  have  been  cured  if  his  mother 
were  returned  to  him?  Such  an  attempt  would 
have  been  fruitless  at  the  time  the  patient  came 
to  the  physician.  Even  the  most  compliant 
mother — and  many  of  them  are  lastingly 
estranged  from  their  sons — could  not  have  shown 
that  measure  of  patience  and  sacrifice  which  the 
patient  demanded  in  his  boundless  mistrust  and 
desire  for  dominancy.  The  past,  and  the 
thought  of  former  privations,  were  ever  ready  to 
furnish  motives  for  new  outbreaks  and  oppres- 
sions. It  is  possible  that  the  attempt  at  cure 
might  have  been  a  successful  one  in  the  patient's 
childhood,  a  pedagogic  solution  of  this  special 
neurotic  problem  in  a  gradual  orientation  and 
independence  of  the  child,  and  an  appropriate 
tranquihzing  of  the  child  concerning  his  future. 
It  is  the  uncertainty  which  mars  the  outlook  for 
the  future  in  these  children,  an  uncertainty  whose 
organic  and  psychic  roots  we  already  know.  In 
our  case  it  was  the  fact  that  the  patient,  already 
as  a  child,  even  during  the  suckling  period 
showed  a  tendency  to  become  easily  frightened 
and  panicky.  This  fright  of  sucklings — which  is 
frequently  taken  as  nervousness — is  obviously  an 
organic  inheritance  and  is  associated,  according 
to  my  obser\'ations,  with  an  hereditary  sensitive- 
ness, inferiority  of  the  auditory  apparatus,  so 
that  children  already  become  panicky  in  the  pres- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       197 

ence  of  noises  and  tones  to  which  other  children 
pay  no  unusual  attention.  From  our  standpoint 
this  striking  tendency  to  fright  signifies  a  sign 
of  an  hereditarj^  auditory  oversensitiveness,  a 
manifestation  of  a  somatic  inferiority  of  the 
familiar  ear  diseases,  but  likewise  corresponds  to 
a  heightened  refinement  of  hearing  in  the  musical 
sense.  The  fact  that  our  patient  suffered  at  the 
age  of  6  years  from  a  protracted  middle  ear 
disease  which  necessitated  paracentesis  of  the  ear 
drum,  is  in  accord  with  our  views  concerning 
somatic  inferiority;  similarly,  his  development 
of  an  excellent  musical  ear  and  of  a  strikingly  re- 
fined sensitiveness  in  hearing  which  especially 
qualified  him  for  eavesdropping.  This  somatic 
refinement  brings  with  it  that  the  child  is  driven  to 
a  development  of  a  tendency  towards  a  lurking 
curiosity,  even  though  he  may  feel  more  marked 
uncertainties  from  other  causes.  The  roots  of 
this  uncertainty  from  which  he  endeavors  to  es- 
cape by  means  of  his  curiosity,  laid  in  the  patient's 
weaker  intellect,  compared  with  an  older  brother 
— who  as  it  often  hai:)pens  to  the  detriment  of 
bringing  up — made  of  the  patient  the  plaything 
of  his  railleries  and  often  made  a  fool  of  him. 

The  patient  also  recalled  to  have  suffered  from 
that  form  of  cryptorchism  in  which  a  testicle  oc- 
casionally disappears  into  the  abdominal  cavity 
through  the  patent  canal.     This  fact,  that  is,  the 


198  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

better  sexual  development  of  his  brother,  the  ear- 
lier maturity  of  the  latter,  brought  to  his  mind 
quite  early  the  thought  that  he  is  perhaps  a  girl 
after  all.  Up  to  the  fourth  year  of  his  life  he  was 
dressed  in  girls'  clothes,  and  during  this  period  he 
developed  the  fear  that  he  never  perhaps  would 
reach  the  mature  state  of  his  father  or  his  older 
brother,  that  is,  never  become  a  complete  man. 
The  marked  development  of  his  breasts  lent  con- 
siderable weight  to  his  uncertainty.  That  he  un- 
consciously gave  considerable  thought  to  the  ques- 
tion of  the  difference  of  the  sexes,  one  may  glean 
from  an  occurrence  which  remained  fixed  in  his 
memory,  because  at  the  time  he  told  it  every  one 
laughed  at  him.  One  day  while  in  a  public  park 
he  watched  a  girl  urinate  and  upon  reaching  home 
related  how  he  had  seen  a  boy  urinate  from  be- 
hind.® 

This  early  period  in  his  life  was  of  marked  sig- 
nificance in  shaping  his  attitude  towards  his  fam- 
ily and  in  a  broader  sense  to  the  world  at  large. 
He  saw  himself  belittled,  and  his  feeling  of  infe- 
riority found  no  adjustment  in  the  family.  His 
covetousness,  his  craving  to  become  the  equal  of 

8  The  original  uncertainty  of  the  sexual  role,  as  I  have  been 
emphasizing  for  years,  plays  one  of  the  chief  parts  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  neurotic  psyche,  which  is  later  on  vitalized  as  a  sym- 
bol and  base  of  operation  in  the  struggle  for  dominancy.  It  is 
only  of  late  that  many  authorities  are  beginning  to  agree  with  me 
on  this  point. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       199 

his  brother,  of  his  father,  of  anyone  whom  he  con- 
sidered strong,  able,  powerful,  gained  in  intensity 
and  directed  him  upon  paths  in  which  he  came 
into  serious  conflicts  with  his  parents.  He  be- 
came a  bad,  unmanageable  child,  which  made  a. 
tender  attitude  of  his  parents  towards  him  still 
more  difficult.  His  desires  assumed  measureless 
proportions,  he  began  to  insure  himself  against 
every  setback  suspiciously  and  with  a  growing 
choler,  and  this  at  a  time  when  his  maturing  geni- 
talia, his  strikingly  hairy  body,  his  improved  in- 
sight into  matters  sexual,  should  have  had  their 
tranquilizing  effect  upon  him.  But  by  this  time 
his  position  in  the  family  became  such  an  un- 
favorable one,  owing  to  the  development  of  his 
traits  of  character,  which  likewise  unfavorably  in- 
fluenced his  school  work,  that  with  his  over-sensi- 
tive nature  he  had  good  reason  to  feel  himself 
slighted  and  belittled.  Thus  he  was  no  longer 
able  to  find  the  road  to  normality.  That  he,  how- 
ever, continued  to  apperceive  this  slight — in  the 
manner  of  an  analogy  with  the  feminine  role — be- 
came already  evident  from  the  first  dream  which 
he  recited  during  the  treatment.  The  dream  was 
"I  felt  as  if  I  were  witnessing  an  ape  nursing  a 
child" 

His  brother  often  called  him  an  ape  because 
of  his  excessive  hair}''  growth,  which  he  neverthe- 
less exhibited  with  pride.     The  ape,  which  is 


200  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

nursing  the  child,  a  female  ape,  is  he  himself — 
that  is,  he  sees  himself,  he  feels  himself  in  a  femi- 
nine role,  along  with  which  the  nursing  is  to  be 
considered  a  g}^necomastia  ("Gynakomastie") 
which  came  up  during  the  dream  analysis.  This 
is  the  feminine  principle  emphasized  by  me  for 
all  dreams — against  which  the  stressing  of  the 
excessive  hairy  growth  is  to  be  understood  as 
pointing  in  the  direction  of  the  masculine  pro- 
test. Thus  the  patient  enters  upon  the  treat- 
ment with  the  disclosure  that  he  feels  himself  be- 
littled— and  permits  us  to  divine  from  the  choice 
of  his  figure  of  speech,  that  he  evaluates  this  in- 
feriority as  feminine. 

I  wish  to  draw  attention,  in  this  connection,  to 
the  fact  that  the  dreamer  often  chooses  pictures 
and  forms  of  expression  which  show  a  simul- 
taneous coloring  of  feminine  and  masculine  traits. 
Here  it  was  an  ape,  whose  nursing  was  a  feminine 
characteristic,  while  the  hairy  growth  is  to  be 
apperceived  as  a  masculine  characteristic.  Such 
forms  of  expression  which  I  have  recognized  as 
belonging  to  the  psychic  hermaphroditism  may  be 
referred  to  two  simplifying  circumstances. 
First,  they  correspond  to  the  infantile  indefinite- 
ness  of  sex-cognition.  Second,  because  the  ele- 
ment of  time,  as  in  other  cases,  the  element  of 
space,  is  during  the  marked  abstraction  of  the 
dream  state  wholly  or  almost  wholly  eliminated. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       201 

SO  that  his  thoughts  which  may  be  separated 
spatially  or  temporally,  become  united — in  one 
case  the  thoughts  were  "I  feel  myself  a  woman 
and  wish  to  be  a  man."  Stekel,  in  his  further 
elaboration  of  my  conception  of  psychic  herma- 
phroditism, assumes  a  double  sexual  meaning  for 
every  dream  symbol,  which  I  think  is  a  certain 
exaggeration,  nevertheless  he  comes  closer  to  the 
truth  than  does  Freud  who  denies  the  regular 
manifestation  in  the  dream  of  psychic  hermaphro- 
ditism and  the  masculine  protest. 

The  distinctness  with  which  this  first  dream  of 
our  patient  points  to  his  feeling  of  inferiority,  so 
to  speak,  in  the  form  of  a  reaction  to  the  be- 
ginning of  the  treatment,  is  naturally  also  to  be 
understood  as  an  omen  for  the  benefit  of  the  phy- 
sician:— "My  disease  has  its  origin  in  my  feeling 
of  inferiority." — "My  disease,"  fainting  attacks 
and  business  incapacity  are  security  devices 
against  a  defeat  in  the  fifth  act.  "I  am  impotent 
and  inefficient  as  a  child  and  long  for  love,  ape- 
love,  as  I  see  it  in  the  dream."  We  fill  out: — 
impotent  for  reason,  in  order  to  be  pampered  like 
a  child,  which  he  succeeds  in  attaining  more  read- 
ily after  his  attacks ;  and  inefficient,  in  order  that 
he  may  always  be  supplied  with  maintenance,  in 
order  that  it  may  not  be  forgotten  that  he  must 
be  made  secure  for  life  through  affection  and 
legacy.     His  marked  tendency  to  be  frightened 


202  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

by  sudden  noises,  his  hyperacusis  was  especially 
fitted  to  aid  him  in  gaining  his  point.  The  finale 
which  he  set  before  him,  a  desired  over-compensa- 
tion for  a  feeling  of  inferiority,  consisted  in  not 
more  nor  less  than  the  desire  to  gain  the  love  of 
his  parents,  especially  that  difficult  of  attainment, 
mother's  love.  Thus  he  utilizes,  with  the  object 
of  influencing  his  mother's  heart,  the  already- 
mentioned  experiences,  such  as  becoming  fright- 
ened upon  hearing  a  shot,  as  he  often  manifested 
upon  hearing  the  firing  at  a  military  funeral, 
upon  hearing  the  puffing  and  shrill  whistling  of  a 
locomotive,  and  during  a  sudden  assault  by  his 
brother  or  plajnuates.  The  finale  which  con- 
stantly stands  before  his  eyes,  drew  upon  itself  a 
fixation  of  this  hyperacusis,  which  dominated  him 
up  to  the  present.  This  purposeful  hypersensi- 
tiveness  serves,  as  do  similar  phenomena  in  hys- 
teria, to  show  us  that  the  patient's  uncertainty 
forces  him  to  stretch  forth  his  antennae  as  far  as 
possible,  as  he  is  actually  doing  with  over-tense 
traits  of  character.  Aside  from  this  his  tendency 
to  fear  pressed  upon  his  masculine  feeling  and 
gave  him  the  sense  of  feminine  stimuli.  He  en- 
deavored, therefore,  to  bring  forth  in  all  other 
relations,  courage  and  fearless  behavior,  in  which 
he  succeeded  too. 

The  laying  bare  of  his  desire  for  the  love  of  the 
mother  brought  forth  no  particular  result.     His 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       203 

attacks  occurred  at  about  the  same  intervals,  but 
now  he  had  them  in  bed,  in  order  to  protect  him- 
self in  this  way  from  the  possible  inroads  of  the 
treatment,  which,  at  this  stage,  was  encountering 
more  difficulty  in  endeavoring  to  uncover  the 
causes  of  his  attacks.  Prior  to  this  the  attacks 
occurred  always  in  connection  with  experiences 
which  threatened  him  with  a  set-back,  but  now 
I  was  compelled  to  reconstruct  these  experiences 
from  his  thoughts  and  dreams.  Naturally  the 
patient  made  a  virtue  of  this  necessity,  and  spoke 
of  this  change  as  an  improvement  due  to  my 
treatment,  thus  expecting  to  gain  in  this  way  my 
sympathj^,  an  experience  which  he  always  apper- 
ceived  as  a  feeling  of  power.  To  this  craving 
after  this  feeling  of  power  he  owes  his  success  in 
passing  as  a  very  sociable  and  pleasant  fellow  in 
his  intercourse  with  strangers. 

It  may  be  spoken  here  that  because  of  my  dif- 
ferent conception  of  these  matters,  the  CEdipus- 
complex  does  not  come  very  clearly  to  the  surface, 
here,  at  any  rate  not  so  clearly  as  Freud  has 
demonstrated  this  complex.  To  this  I  would 
have  to  object  energetically.  It  was  this  case 
particularly,  as  so  few  of  them  are,  which  brought 
to  view  regardless  of  consequence,  the  striving 
for  the  mother  in  a  sexual  manner,  and  the  patient 
at  no  time  hesitated  to  elaborate  the  frequenth" 
unconcealed  (Edipus  dreams  as  proof  of  his  sex- 


204  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ual  striving  after  his  mother.  He  had  many  such 
dreams.  He  dreamed :  "I'm  walking  with  a  lady 
from  our  rendezvous  towards  the  street/' 

The  lady  represented  his  mother,  as  the  various 
details  showed.  The  "street"  referred  to  prosti- 
tution. The  "rendezvous"  on  the  other  hand  was 
a  memory-remnant  from  his  waking  hfe  and  re- 
ferred to  a  girl  who  refused  him  another  meeting, 
thus  hy  her  refusal  simulating  his  mother.  He 
was  unable  to  wield  any  influence  over  girls,  and 
was  thus,  according  to  his  own  understanding, 
driven  to  the  masculine — feeling  of  power — and 
in  his  protest  degraded  to  the  level  of  a  prostitute 
his  mother  as  well  as  the  girl,  and  for  that  matter 
all  women  whom  he  naturally  feared. 

Just  as  clearly  the  CEdipus-complex  came  to 
light  in  other  dreams,  where  too  the  sexual,  as  a 
jargon,  as  a  mode  of  speech,  was  only  recognized 
after  a  penetration  into  the  psychic  constellation. 
Thus  he  dreamed :  "I'm  sitting  at  a  smooth  table 
made  of  brown  wood.  A  girl  brings  me  a  large 
vessel  of  beer,"  The  table  reminded  him  of  a 
subterranean  cellar  at  Nuremberg,  where  he  went 
to  attend  a  scientific  undertaking  which  led  him 
to  the  German  museum.  His  thoughts  drifted 
in  the  same  general  direction  of  Germanism  in 
connection  with  the  large  vessel  of  beer.  It  is 
quite  comprehensible  that  this  unusually  musical 
patient  should  in  the  analysis  come  upon  Wag- 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       205 

ner's  "JMeistersinger."  As  he  mentioned  this  he 
began  to  search  for  a  scene  in  Wagner's  operas, 
wherein  some  one  takes  a  drink.  At  fii'st  he 
thought  of  Tristan,  then  of  Siegfried's  an'ival  at 
Gunter's  palace.  In  both  scenes  the  hero  drinks 
a  love  potion.  Thus  our  patient  apperceives  his 
enigmatical  attraction  for  his  mother  as  some- 
thing provoked  by  the  mother's  magical  powers. 
At  last  he  thought  of  Siegmund  whom  his  sister 
Sieglinde  compassionately  gives  a  horn  of  meal. 

Thus  the  dream  reads: — The  voice  of  blood 
(relation)  hath  spoken,  the  mother  compassion- 
ately takes  his  part,  he  is  the  hero,  who  is  the  man 
(father)  of  his  wife.  An  incestuous  prospect, 
as  in  Wagner,  the  patient,  as  if  intoxicated,  longs 
after  his  mother. 

The  psychic  situation  of  the  patient  had 
experienced  an  "effeminization."  His  older 
brother  had  returned  from  a  journey  and  was 
welcomed  at  home  with  much  love.  How  differ- 
ent were  matters  upon  his  own  return  from  his 
travels  in  Germany.  The  thought,  I  am  be- 
littled, became  accentuated  through  the  reception 
accorded  his  brother,  and  in  the  dream  he  seeks 
to  save  himself  through  a  masculine  guiding  line. 
It  was  an  attempt  which  was  bound  to  fail.  The 
same  night  he  had  a  seizure. 

The  seizure  had  for  its  purpose  the  direction 
of  the  mother's  tenderness  towards  the  patient. 


206  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

This  was  quite  successful  with  the  father.  But 
even  the  mother  would  forget  his  jealous,  fre- 
quently vulgar  outbreaks  of  temper,  as  soon  as 
he  lay  unconscious,  and  for  a  time  would  sit  on  his 
bed.  Thus  he  satisfies  his  wish,  his  wish  to  pos- 
sess everything,  like  the  brother,  like  the  father. 
The  change  of  form  of  his  original  fiction,  namely 
— I  have  imperfect  genitalia,  I  will  not  be  a  com- 
plete man —  had  reached  the  thought,  I  too  wish 
to  possess  my  mother  as  my  father  and  brother 
possess  her.  In  order  to  comport  himself  in  this 
matter  with  the  appropriate  amount  of  energy,  it 
required  a  deeply-felt  conviction  of  his  longing 
for  his  mother,  which  he  proceeded  to  create. 

The  most  essential  reason  for  his  ardent  atti- 
tude towards  his  mother  was  revealed  in  the  fur- 
ther analysis,  which  revealed  as  the  decisive  point 
his  feeling  of  uncertainty.  As  the  mother  iso- 
lated herself  more  and  more  from  him  during  his 
childhood,  he  developed  the  idea,  as  is  the  case 
not  infrequently  with  such  children,  that  he  did 
not  belong  to  his  family.  The  fairy  tales  of 
"Snow  White"  and  "Cinderella"  frequently  fur- 
nish these  children  with  leading  thoughts.  When 
his  brother  was  ill  once  the  mother  did  not  leave 
him  for  a  second.  Since  then  the  patient  was 
uninterruptedly  stimulated  to  test,  by  means  of 
his  severe  seizures,  the  family,  especially  the 
mother,  and  see  if  the  "voice  of  blood"  will  speak. 


AVARICE,  SUSPICIOUSNESS,  ENVY,  ETC.       207 

These  tests  he  carried  out  with  a  genuine  neurotic 
insatiabihty,  and  thus  we  see  also  in  this  case  that 
the  (Edipus-complex  is  of  the  nature  of  an  es- 
pecially arranged  fiction,  utilized  as  a  means  of 
expression  for  the  masculine  protest  against  a 
feeling  of  uncertainty  and  inferiority,  and  de- 
pendent upon  the  neurotic  craving  for  security, 
the  desire  to  possess  everything. 

The  inner  contradiction  which  frequently 
comes  into  being  in  this  forai  of  masculine  pro- 
test, the  moral  condemnation  of  a  conduct  corre- 
sponding to  the  basic  thought  "to  possess  every- 
thing," but  also  the  greater  insight  into  the  im- 
possibility of  attainment  or  the  fear  of  a  decision 
which  may  assail  the  patient  often  necessitate  a 
compromise.  This  may  best  be  expressed  by  the 
words  "half  and  half."  The  patient  seeks  a  way 
out  of  this  dilemma  and  thus  reaches  the  point  of 
''divide  et  impera."  At  times  this  solution  is  ten- 
able, because  of  the  possibility  of  a  gratification 
of  the  desire  for  dominancy. 

At  times  this  leads  to  a  marked  cultural  but 
also  Utopian  development  of  feeling  of  equaUty 
and  love  for  justice. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  NEUROTIC  EXTENSION  OF  LIMITS  THROUGH 
ASCETICISM^  LOVE^  DESIRE  TO  TRAVEL^  CRIME. 
SIMULATION  AND  NEUROSIS.  FEELING  OF  IN- 
FERIORITY OF  THE  FEMALE  SEX.  PURPOSE  OF 
AN  IDEAL.  DOUBT  AS  AN  EXPRESSION  OF  PSY- 
CHIC HERMAPHRODITISM.  MASTURBATION 
AND  NEUROSIS.  THE  INCEST-COMPLEX  AS  A 
SYMBOL  OF  CRAVING  FOR  DOMINANCY.      THE 

NATURE  OF  THE  DELIRIUM.     (Delirium  used 
in  the  sense  of  the  French :  une  delire.  ) 

A  CONSIDERATION  which  should  align  itself  here 
endeavors  to  show  how  the  compensating  guiding 
idea,  "to  possess  everything"  may  deviate  from  its 
straight  course  in  order  to  stimulate  in  a  round- 
ahout  way  or  by  means  of  an  artifice  accomplish- 
ments of  a  strangely  neurotic,  criminal,  but  also 
of  a  creative  kind,  in  order  to  reach  its  ultimate 
good  eventually  and  bring  about  in  some  way  a 
maximation  of  the  ego-consciousness  or  at  least — 
and  to  this  extent  the  neurosis  remains  produc- 
tive— to  prevent  a  degradation. 

The  parsimony,  penury  and  asceticism  of  cer- 
tain neurotics  already  shows  us  such  a  detour 

208 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  209 

upon  which  the  patient  permits  himself  to  be 
driven  as  if  he  were  able  to  avoid  danger  only  in 
this  way.  He  then  behaves  strictly  according  to 
these  guiding  ideas,  believes  in  them  and  accen- 
tuates his  abnormal  being  in  moments  of  especial 
uncertainty  to  the  point  of  a  psychosis.  In 
melancholic  states  when  poverty  phantasies  pre- 
dominate, as  well  as  in  hypochondriacs,  the  pa- 
tient in  order  to  avoid  the  real  danger,  anticipates 
the  feared  state,  endeavors  to  realize  a  fiction, 
emphasizes  his  feeling  of  inferiority  and  utilizes 
his  disease  for  the  safeguarding  of  his  ego-con- 
sciousness. Cases  exhibiting  the  lying-mania, 
fetichism,  neurotic  mania  for  gathering  up  things 
and  kleptomania,  also  illustrate  this  craving  to 
possess  everything.  Another  evident  trait  exists, 
namely,  to  break  through  the  boundaries  laid 
down  by  reality  in  the  direction  of  a  fictitious 
guiding  principle,  in  order  to  escape  a  feeling  of 
degradation.  Apperception  always  comes  to 
light  according  to  the  rigidly  formal  antithesis  of 
"manly-womanly"  and  frequently  leads  the  pa- 
tient to  undertake  accentuations  by  means  of 
which  it  may  be  proved  that  he  is  a  man.  Sexual 
symbolism  lends  itself  very  well  as  a  means  of 
expression  for  this  purpose,  tlie  solution  of  which 
is  at  times  furnished  by  the  exaggerated  mascu- 
line trend  through  peculiar  detours.  Here  be- 
longs the  neurotic  lying,  braggardism,  as  well  as 


210  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

attempts  to  plaj''  with  fire  and  love  and  thus  ex- 
tend as  far  as  possible  the  established  limits. 
Less  harmful  manifestations  are  pathological 
wanderlust,  the  expression  of  which  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  running  away,  in  the  fugues  of  neurotic 
and  psychotic  subjects.  As  a  rule  there  exists  in 
the  guiding  picture  of  these  neurotics  an  ideal  of 
personality,  the  apex  of  which  it  is  attempted  to 
reach  through  imitation  or  obstinate,  negativistic 
behavior.  The  same  trend,  namely,  to  extend 
masculine  cognition,  to  its  very  limits,  is  at  the 
bottom  also  of  the  constant  tendency  to  read 
about,  listen  to,  see  and  commit  acts  of  a  disgust- 
ing nature. 

The  more  pronounced  this  striving  for  worth- 
less possession,  the  more  normal  tendencies  and 
values  are  falsified,  similarly  to  the  manner  in 
which  love  for  nature  is  only  a  deception,  but 
furnished  in  an  exaggerated  manner,  when  a 
tourist  wants  to  have  every  peak  noted  upon  his 
mountain  staff. 

The  Leporelist  shows  us  this  desire  with  refer- 
ence to  love  and  the  Messalina  is  to  be  compared 
with  Don  Juan,  a  nymphomaniac  who  always 
imagines  herself  unsatiated  and  belittled  because 
in  this  neurotic  form  real  possibilities  for  gratifi- 
cation are  unattainable.  The  fettering  and  deg- 
radation of  the  partner  are  of  course  taken  into 
consideration  in  this  relation. 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  211 

"Dear  soul,  what  place  can  you  think  of  where 
I  have  not  been?"  Immermann's  Munchausen 
answers  to  the  question,  whether  he  knew  a  cer- 
tain distant  place.  The  real  satisfaction  in  active 
games,  riding,  driving,  racing  and  aviation  origi- 
nate, from  the  desire  for  possession,  for  conquest. 
For  this  reason  every  child  aspires  to  be  a  coach- 
man, a  conductor,  a  locomotive  engineer  or  an 
aviator,  but  to  no  less  an  extent  he  wishes  to  be 
emperor  or  teacher  in  order  to  command  his  com- 
panions and  to  find  a  visible  expression  for  his 
superiority,  or  a  physician  in  order  to  conquer 
death  and  to  extend  the  limits  of  life,  or  a  general 
in  order  to  lead  an  army  or  an  admiral  in  order  to 
command  the  sea.  Lies,  thefts  and  other  crimes 
committed  by  children  are  manifestly  attempts  to 
extend  the  limits  of  power  in  this  way.  For  the 
most  part  these  attempts  assume  no  more  real 
form  than  that  of  day  dreams  or  phantasies.  An 
inquiry  instituted  by  me  in  a  girls'  high  school 
showed  that  all  of  the  twenty-five  girls  remem- 
bered having  committed  trivial  thefts.  I  was 
able  to  include  even  the  teacher.  On  closer  ex- 
amination the  motive  for  this  striving  for  attain- 
ment is  the  intolerable  stimulus  arising  from  the 
child's  feeling  of  inferiority.  Frequently  the 
child  under  this  pressure  is  curious,  eager  to 
learn,  seeks  to  recognize  his  faults  and  to  make 
for  himself  a  place  for  unfolding  his  personahty. 


212  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Defects,  misfortunes,  the  feeling  of  uncertainty 
and  inferiority  often  force  a  strong  development 
of  the  higher  psychic  faculties,  analogous  to  the 
compensatory  stress  in  the  organic  compensatory 
tendency.  Jatgeir  says  in  Ibsen's  "Pretender  to 
the  Crown,"  "I  received  the  gift  of  pain  and  be- 
came a  skald."  It  is  easy  to  prove  in  a  number 
of  cases  that  a  particularly  strong  feeling  of  in- 
feriority sets  into  activity  the  impulse  to  investi- 
gation, or  that  the  "vocation"  to  the  life  of  an 
artist  which  later  presents  the  example  of  a  har- 
monious accord  of  art  and  life  "began  with  a 
crude  dissonance"  (B.  Litzmann,  Clara  Schu- 
mann). 

Another  way  in  which  children  often  show 
themselves  superior  to  their  parents  has  been  de- 
scribed by  me  in  the  "Psychic  Treatment  of  Tri- 
geminal Neuralgia."  This  may  consist  in  the 
following:  From  memory  of  earlier  defects  in 
imitation  of  others,  a  state  of  apparent  stupidity, 
blindness,  deafness,  limping,  stuttering,  enuresis, 
untidiness,  awkwardness,  lack  of  appetite,  nau- 
sea, etc.,  is  retained.  The  psyche  gradually 
forms  out  of  these  already  prepared  psychic 
habits  which  the  child  holds  fast  to  as  a  protest 
against  the  feeling  of  being  neglected,  psychic 
aptitudes  which  in  the  neurosis  following  a  given 
direction,  constitute  a  symptom  picture  which 
may  be  stated  as  follows:     Act  as  if  you  were 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  213 

obliged  to  shift  for  yourself  by  means  of  one  of 
these  faults,  of  these  deficiencies,  to  gain  through 
it  a  feeling  of  superiority.  The  difference  be- 
tween this  and  malingering  often  consists  only  in 
this,  that  in  every  case  it  is  not  always  reflection 
which  first  calls  up  the  phenomenon,  but  that  the 
already  existing  preparedness  for  the  symptom 
becomes  embodied  in  the  web  and  woof  of  mem- 
ory as  an  insui'ing  agent  against  the  fear  of  being 
under-estimated  or  neglected,  just  as  the  techni- 
cal skill  in  the  fingers  of  a  virtuoso  is  always 
ready  to  respond  in  the  proper  reaction  to  any 
demand.  The  whole  army  of  neurotic  symp- 
toms, blushing,  headache,  migraine,  fainting, 
pains,  tremor,  depression,  exaltation,  etc.,  may  be 
traced  to  these  ready-for-use  psychic  attitudes. 
One  of  the  facts  which,  thanks  to  my  method  of 
viewing  the  subject,  I  was  able  to  explain  con- 
cerns the  less  well  known  feeling  of  inferiority 
common  to  all  girls  and  women  which  is  due  to 
their  feminine  role  in  contrast  to  the  masculine. 
Their  soul  life  is  thereby  so  altered  that  they  con- 
stantly betray  traits  of  the  "masculine  protest" 
and  in  truth,  usually  in  a  circuitous  form,  in  ap- 
parently feminine  inferior  traits  such  as  are  de- 
scribed in  the  previously  cited  group.  Educa- 
tion as  well  as  the  necessary  preparations  for  the 
future  force  them  to  bring  their  superiority  to 
expression,  their  "masculine  protest"  in  insidious 


sit  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ways,  mostly  having  the  character  of  resignation. 
The  features  of  "Emotion"  (Heyman's)  are  al- 
ways sufficiently  distinct,  greed  for  power,  envy, 
desire  to  please,  inclination  to  cruelty  are  so  ap- 
parent that  they  may  be  regarded  as  compensa- 
tory masculine  traits,  as  directed  towards  a  mas- 
culine goal.  Parkes  Weber  (Lancet,  1911)  has, 
following  me,  discovered  the  foundation  of  hys- 
terical phenomena  in  this  sort  of  provision  against 
under-estimation. 

Preparedness  for  crime  is  also  to  be  regarded 
as  an  outcome  of  the  masculine  protest  in  persons 
whose  compensatory  ideal  necessitates  a  fictitious 
guiding  line  which  demands  that  the  life,  health, 
and  possessions  of  his  fellow  man  should  be 
stripped  of  worth.  In  cases  of  extreme  uncer- 
tainty where  the  deprivations,  under-estimations, 
threaten  loss  of  the  feeling  of  ego-consciousness 
as  well  as  where  there  is  strained  effort  to  "reach 
the  top,"  to  secure  supremacy,  such  persons 
(whose  feeling  of  inferiority  has  sought  compen- 
sation in  emotional  preparedness,  in  essential 
pursuit  of  the  guiding  line,  by  processes  of  ab- 
straction from  reality)  will  seek  to  come  nearer  to 
their  ideal  by  a  crime.  D.  A.  Jassny  has  given 
an  excellent  analysis  of  this  mechanism  which  is 
manifested  most  clearly  in  emotional  crimes,  ha- 
bitual crimes  and  crimes  of  negligence  in  women, 
in  Gross'  Archiv.  f.  Kriminalanthropologie,  1911. 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  215 

The  great  importance  of  the  relations  of  love  in 
human  life  has  as  a  result  that  the  neurotic  greed 
to  possess  everything  enters  regularly  into  the 
relations  of  man  and  wife  and  there  develops  a 
disturbing  tendency  by  introducing  an  inclination 
to  disregard  reality  and  causing  the  undertaking 
of  enterprises  with  a  view  to  maximation  the  feel- 
ing of  personal  worth.  It  lies  in  the  nature  of  a 
neurotic  to  wish  to  diminish  the  feeling  of  inferi- 
ority by  constant  proofs  of  his  superiority.  For 
this  reason,  the  person  loved  is  forced  to  sacrifice 
the  personality,  to  exist  entirely  through  the  neu- 
rotic who  makes  this  demand,  to  become  a  means 
for  augmenting  the  feeling  of  personal  worth  of 
the  neurotic.  A  good  test  of  a  real  love  without 
neurotic  tendency  would  be  the  fact  that  the  per- 
son loved  was  allowed  to  preserve  his  or  her  per- 
sonal worth  or  when  this  personal  worth  even 
received  support.  Such  cases  are  rare.  In  the 
relation  of  the  sexes  there  arises  nearly  always  an 
obstinate  and  selfish  feature,  a  tendency  to  put  to 
test,  towards  suspicion  which  constantly  disturbs 
the  peaceful  marital  relations.  Arbitrary  de- 
mands are  the  order  of  the  day.  One  situation 
explains  the  other,  so  that  the  gist  of  the  situation 
can  always  be  easily  recognized.  It  is  as  if  both 
parties  were  confronted  by  an  enigma  which  they 
endeavor  to  solve  bj'-  every  possible  means. 
Analysis  always  reveals  a  fear  of  the  sexual  part- 


216  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ner  resulting  from  a  feeling  of  inferiority  and 
thereby  striving  toward  superiority. 

We  have  already  become  acquainted  to  some 
extent  with  the  strivings  by  circuitous  ways  where 
there  is  an  accentuated  feeling  of  inferiority  in 
congenital  defectives.  This  striving  results  in 
a  number  of  neurotically  acquired  adaptations 
and  certain  traits  of  character  assume  promi- 
nence, so  that  the  individual  remains  in  close 
touch  with  the  enemy.  Perhaps  the  really  most 
important  features  are  distrust  and  jealousy, 
with  which  desire  for  mastery  and  disputatious- 
ness  are  concurrent.  According  to  the  previous 
history  of  the  patient  and  to  the  previous  avail- 
able practices  as  well  as  the  neurosis  which  he  can 
apply  to  his  purpose,  the  one  feature  or  the  other 
declares  itself  with  more  or  less  distinctness. 
They  all  stand  under  the  pressure  of  the  fictitious 
final  purpose  and  break  forth  when  reduction  of 
the  feeling  of  personal  worth  is  threatened,  or 
show  that  they  are  still  effective  when  pride  re- 
presses them  into  the  unconscious.  In  all  cases 
these  individuals  have  at  their  disposal  the  neu- 
rotic adaptations,  which  now  in  the  form  of  de- 
pression, again  as  anxiety  at  being  left  alone,  as 
fear  of  places,  as  insomnia,  and  in  a  hundred  and 
one  other  symptoms  by  means  of  which  they  seek 
to  force  "the  opponent"  to  lay  down  his  arms. 
The  strongest  moral  principles  have  the  same 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  217 

value  as,  for  instance,  coquetry  and  adultery  as 
a  revenge  when  the  feeling  of  being  under-esti- 
mated demands  the  reinstatement  in  equality  or 
the  gaining  of  the  upper  hand  of  the  other  party. 
The  husband  expresses  protesting  revengeful- 
ness  where  there  is  a  lack  of  the  feeling  of  superi- 
ority by  playing  the  wild  man,  in  side  leaps,  in 
rejection,  sometimes  however  in  impotence,  in  re- 
markable protection  of  the  children  or  doubts 
about  their  legitimacy,  frequently  in  shunning 
domesticity,  in  increased  alcoholism  or  in  the  pur- 
suit of  pleasure.  The  purpose  of  this  line  of  con- 
duct is  usually  so  obvious  that  it  is  generally  un- 
derstood. For  it  only  then  reaches  its  goal  when 
the  wife  feels  herself  thereby  degraded.  The 
frequent  delirium  of  jealousy  of  alcoholics  is  not 
based  on  the  resulting  impotence,  but  alcoholism, 
impotence  and  the  increased  jealousy  as  a  trait  of 
character  are  neurotic  forms  of  expression  of 
those  predisposed  and  whose  feeling  of  inferiority 
experiences  an  aggravation.  Like  all  other  neu- 
rotics such  an  individual  suffers  from  the  neurotic 
apperception,  by  means  of  which  he  measures  the 
distance  of  reality  from  an  ideal  which  has  been 
strengthened  in  the  direction  of  his  tendency.  It 
is,  however,  one  of  the  most  effective  attitudes  of 
neurotic  individuals  to  measure  pollice  verso  so  to 
speak,  real  human  beings  by  an  ideal,  so  that 
their  value  may  be  reduced  to  any  desired  extent. 


218  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  revengefulness  of  the  rejected  wife  mani- 
fests itself  preferably  in  those  neurotic  symptoms 
in  which  frigidity  plays  the  principal  role.  The 
purpose  of  this  is  to  contest  with  the  husband, 
the  male  force,  to  show  him,  even  where  there  is 
perfect  accord,  limits  of  his  power  and  thus  to 
secure  a  considerable  superiority. 

That  this  powerful  construction  is  the  result  of 
an  original  feeling  of  deficiency  which  demands 
compensation  becomes  apparent  from  more  thor- 
ough analysis.  Ordinarily  the  apperception  of 
an  under-estimation  of  an  analogous  fear  or  of  a 
wish  of  this  nature  takes  place  after  the  picture  of 
the  antithesis  of  "man — woman,"  in  accordance 
with  which  the  maximation  of  the  ego-conscious- 
ness is  felt  and  valued  as  "masculine,"  the  lower- 
ing as  "feminine."  Or  instead  of  the  feeling  of 
being  under-estimated,  in  a  phantasy  or  dream  of 
a  castration  (feminine)  a  loss  of  the  penis  arises 
as  a  symbol.  Very  often  the  masculine  guiding 
line  which  had  already  played  an  important  role  in 
the  previous  history  penetrates  into  the  neurosis 
as  an  essential  or  accessory  component  and  ac- 
centuates the  manly  traits  as  soon  as  the  ego- 
consciousness  enters  into  the  question,  a  circum- 
stance which  as  a  rule  is  very  striking  in  women. 

Aside  from  the  predisposition  to  jealousy  a 
large  number  of  other  symptoms  are  manifested 
in  female  neurotics,  which  originate  from  the  ad- 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  219 

herence  to  the  masculine  guiding  line.  These 
symptoms  usually  have  reference  to  love  or  to  the 
sexual  relation  and  claim  may  be  made  to  many 
causes  as  their  foundation,  instead  of  the  only 
right  one,  the  desire  to  be  a  man,  which  as  far  as 
possible  seeks  realization.  This  inclination  to 
love  and  "manage"  then  continues  throughout 
the  entire  life  or  this  form  of  the  masculine  guid- 
ing line  develops  in  advanced  years  an  inner  con- 
tradiction, a  fear  of  not  being  able  to  hold  the 
husband,  touches  the  ego-consciousness  and 
causes  constantly  varying  neurotic,  erotic  dis- 
turbances. These  variations  are  dependent  on 
the  fact  that  the  new  guiding  line,  to  win  a  hus- 
band, in  order  thereby  to  elevate  the  feeling  of 
personal  worth,  contains  within  itself  a  contra- 
diction: the  lowering  of  the  feeling  of  personality 
by  assuming  the  feminine  role.  In  such  cases 
often  the  neurotic  symptom  of  indecision  awakens 
and  extends  to  the  most  banal  relations  of  life, 
until  the  real  situation  is  understood  to  depend 
upon  the  hermaphroditic  attitude  of  the  subject 
from  which  the  impulse  of  indecision  and  doubt 
takes  its  source.  Every  decision  calls  up  an  an- 
tithetical reaction  in  the  opposing  consciousness 
which  is  then  felt  and  valued  after  the  antithesis 
of  "man — woman"  so  that  the  patient  either  si- 
multaneously or  in  immediate  sequence  plays  a 
feminine  and  then  a  masculine  role.     The  fol- 


220  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

lowing  case  may  be  considered  as  a  visible  exam- 
ple of  such  a  condition: 

A  girl  30  years  of  age,  who  earned  her  living 
by  teaching,  complained  of  uneasiness,  constant 
doubt,  insomnia  and  thoughts  of  suicide.  Since 
the  death  of  the  father  she  had  taken  care  of  the 
whole  family,  thus  taking  the  place  of  the  man, 
the  provider,  and  in  her  phantasies  and  dreams  is 
a  beast  of  burden,  a  horse  that  must  draw  all  the 
load.  She  works  until  she  is  exhausted  and  sac- 
rifices everything  to  her  brother  and  to  her  sister. 
As  far  back  as  she  can  remember,  she  has  always 
wished  she  had  been  a  man.  As  a  child,  she  had 
sturdy  boyish  traits  and  at  15  years  of  age  was 
still  mistaken  for  a  boy  at  bathing  places. 

Von  Neusser  has  called  attention  to  these  bod- 
ily traits  of  the  opposite  sex  where  constitutional 
anomaly  could  be  shown  in  his  work  on  the  status 
thymico-lymphaticus.  Also  in  my  work  on  neu- 
rology, I  have  emphasized  the  finding  of  bodily 
traits  of  the  opposite  sex  and  could  prove  con- 
cerning them  that  they  are  often  made  use  of  by 
neurotics,  either  for  giving  prominence  to  the  in- 
feriority in  cases  where  the  femininity  is  accentu- 
ated or  for  expressing  the  "masculine  protest." 
The  previous  observations  of  Flies  who  as  well  as 
Halvan  directed  my  attention  to  this  field,  do  not 
take  into  consideration  the  psychic  mechanisms 
as  I  understand  them. 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  221 

In  one  variety,  this  female  patient  revealed  the 
masculine  protest  on  the  very  first  day  by  refus- 
ing sharply  gratuitous  treatment.  She  would 
receive  no  gifts,  she  repeated  emphatically  several 
times  in  succession  and  she  subsequently  ex- 
plained to  me  in  the  manner  with  which  I  was 
already  acquainted  that  it  was  unmanly  to  receive 
gifts.  Therefore  she  had  always  refused  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  she  herself  gave  willingly, 
something  she  often  practiced  in  the  family  in  her 
role  of  father. 

From  her  history,  I  emphasize  one  incident  as 
of  importance.  An  uncle  had  attempted  to  vio- 
late her  in  her  eighth  year.  In  her  terror,  she 
had  remained  passive,  but  had  never  mentioned 
the  attack.  After  her  neurosis  had  made  some 
progress,  she  had  forced  herself  to  the  idea  that 
as  a  child  she  was  already  a  sinful  creature  and 
capable  of  yielding  to  any  one,  and  that  she  had 
always  remained  the  same.  Thus  we  have  the 
application  of  a  souvenir  for  the  purpose  of  re- 
assurance with  which  we  are  ali-eady  acquainted, 
for  the  course  of  this  train  of  thought  was  that 
up  to  her  thirtieth  year  of  life  she  had  yielded  to 
all  men. 

From  her  tenth  year  to  the  twentv-fifth  vear 
she  asserted  that  she  had  practiced  masturbation 
excessively.  She  developed  therefrom  a  strong 
feeling  of  guilt,  augmented  the  conviction  of  her 


222  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

sinfulness,  and  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  she 
had  rendered  herself  eternally  unworthy  to  enter 
into  matrimony.  This  conviction  was  bound  to 
have  an  extensive  influence  on  her  attitude  to- 
ward men. 

The  usual  role  of  masturbation  in  neuroses  is 
as  follows,  that  in  consequence  thereof,  an  ar- 
rangement of  a  feeling  of  guilt  arises,  but  at  the 
same  time  from  the  possibility  of  dispensing  with 
a  partner,  the  feeling  of  security  from  being 
under  the  influence  of  a  partner.  The  analogy 
with  those  cases  where  the  same  security  is  sought 
by  strengthening  the  defects  of  childhood,  enure- 
sis, stuttering  or  other  neurotic  symptoms  is  ob- 
vious. The  original  feeling  of  inferiority  re- 
mains behind  as  an  echo,  fills  itself  with  phan- 
tasies of  feminine  deficiencies  and  feelings  of 
guilt  and  forces  the  individual  to  strive  for  the 
manly  guiding  point.  The  conduct  of  our  fe- 
male patient  is  constructed  according  to  the  guid- 
ing line  which  may  be  expressed  in  the  words,  "I 
wish  to  be  a  man." 

A  few  years  ago,  a  compulsory  idea  took  hold 
of  her  which  clearly  reflects  our  idea  of  the  neuro- 
sis. The  patient  beheved  that  she  had  lost 
through  masturbation  a  part  of  the  genital  region 
which  extended  forward  and  which  according  to 
her  description  seemed  to  her  to  be  a  penis.  Now 
she  had  become  wholly  unfit  for  marriage,  be- 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  223 

cause  she  could  not  live  through  it  if  her  husband 
should  hear  of  her  sins.  The  security  seems  to 
be  thus  entirely  assured  and  it  is  easy  to  under- 
stand how  she  brings  her  fictitious  masculine 
guiding  principle  as  an  ideal  in  contrast  with 
her  real  femininity,  emphasizes  the  latter 
and  feels  inferior,  yet  by  this  very  expedient 
seeks  to  exempt  herself  from  a  feminine  role  in 
reality. 

But  even  this  assurance,  however  strong  it 
might  seem,  became  in  time  insufficient  to  satisfy 
the  ideal  of  personal  value  of  our  patient.  Her 
female  friends  deserted  her  in  order  to  marry,  and 
when  finally  her  younger  sister  married,  her  guid- 
ing line  became  no  longer  tenable  because  her 
ambition  strove  also  for  "mastery  over  men." 
She  decided  arbitrarily,  as  nervous  girls  with  ex- 
treme indecision  usually  do,  to  take  the  first  best. 
She  went  to  a  masquerade  where  she  became  ac- 
quainted with  a  worthy  man  who  wished  to  marry 
her  after  a  short  acquaintance.  During  a  trip 
she  yielded  to  him  because,  as  she  said,  she  feared 
that  by  contact  he  might  become  aware  of  the 
defect  of  her  genital  organs  and  leave  her  dis- 
graced and  she  would  rather  have  anything  else 
happen  to  her.  When  later  the  man  in  a  friendly 
way  insisted  on  her  telling  him  if  he  were  her  first 
lover  and  why  she  had  become  so  cold  she  threw 
him  overboard  with  the  untruthful  explanation 


224  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

that  she  had  had  relations  with  other  men. 
Thereupon  the  man  broke  off  the  affair. 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  what  now  followed.  The 
patient  who  was  already  constantly  grieving  over 
another  loss  than  that  of  her  masculinity,  beheld 
herself  thwarted  and  deprived  of  her  new  mascu- 
line triumph.  She  recalled  her  lie  which,  as  she 
sought  to  explain  to  me  later,  she  had  told  in 
order  to  punish  the  man  for  having  conquered 
her,  in  order  to  deprive  him  of  worth.  She  ex- 
plained to  him  the  facts,  but  he  withdrew  entirely, 
for  the  most  part  from  fear  of  further  discords  in 
a  marriage  with  this  neurotic  girl.  Thereupon 
our  patient  became  passionately  in  love  with  him, 
made  a  god  of  him,  passed  sleepless  nights  in 
thoughts  of  him,  and  took  an  oath  to  have  him  or 
no  other  husband,  for  this  one  was  in  all  human 
probability  lost  to  her.  Thus  by  means  of  vari- 
ous expedients  of  her  neurosis  she  had  returned  to 
her  original  guiding  line,  and  had  gained  a  ficti- 
tious ideal  and  up  to  the  time  of  her  treatment, 
had  succeeded  in  avoiding  the  feminine  role. 

In  psychotherapeutic  treatment,  special  atten- 
tion should  be  given  to  prevent  this  blindly 
working  tendency  to  depreciation  of  the  patient 
from  making  the  physician  himself  a  victim,  as 
the  condition  of  disease  is  regularly  used  as  a 
means  of  depriving  the  psycho-therapeutist  of  his 
worth.     The  patient  may  do  this  by  following  the 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  225 

ordinary  direction  which  his  disease  takes  only 
with  a  sharper  tone,  because  he  strengthens  the 
symptoms,  or  originates  new  ones,  and  tries  to 
supply  tense  relations,  frequently  also  situations 
of  love  and  friendship,  but  always  with  the  inten- 
tion (which  is  the  result  of  his  nem-otic  tendency, 
of  the  masculine  protest)  of  becoming  master  of 
the  ph3'^sician,  of  giving  him  a  setback,  of  making 
him  play  a  "feminine"  part,  of  annihilating  his 
worth.  The  tactical  and  pedagogic  expedients 
to  which  one  is  obliged  to  resort  in  order  to 
weaken  this  struggle  of  the  patient  against  the 
physician,  in  order  to  render  it  comprehensible 
and  in  order  to  demonstrate  in  this  way  the  neu- 
rotic conduct  or  attitude  of  the  patient  in  life 
generally,  become  an  important  factor  in  the 
therapeusis.  The  silent  protest  of  the  neurotic 
should  not  however  be  undervalued,  and  one 
should  be  on  the  lookout  for  it  to  the  very  end  of 
the  treatment,  laying  special  stress  upon  it  to- 
wards its  termination.  It  should  be  viewed  with 
quiet,  objective  composure,  as  the  matter-of-fact 
aggressiveness  of  the  patient  and  as  having  the 
same  value  as  has  the  neurosis,  inasmuch  as  it 
furnishes  the  neurotic  predispositions  and  traits. 
Freud's  h3'pothesis  of  transference  will  be  re- 
ferred to  again  later.  It  is  nothing  more  than 
an  expedient  of  the  patient  who  seeks  to  rob  the 
physician   of   superiority.     Bezzola   and   others 


226  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

have  described  the  circuitous  ways  in  which  the 
neiu'otic  patient  seeks  to  deprive  physicians  of 
their  value.  It  is  always  the  masculine  guiding 
line  which  is  revealed,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to 
assure  the  patient's  superiority.  The  most  usual 
manner  of  enhancing  his  tendency  to  aggression, 
the  neurotic  finds  by  holding  fast  to  his  symp- 
toms, because  these  in  themselves  present  a  phase 
of  his  aggressive  tendency. 

An  extract  from  a  history  of  a  patient  shortly 
before  the  end  of  her  treatment  reveals  (in  the 
form  of  an  unfriendly  impulse)  this  effort  to  de- 
prive the  physician  of  value  as  a  psychic  predis- 
position of  her  "masculine  protest."  The  pa- 
tient was  placed  under  treatment  because  of  an 
anxiety  and  of  crying  out  at  night.  She  was  a 
virgin,  36  years  of  age.  I  will  begin  the  descrip- 
tion of  this  neurotic  picture  with  the  following 
dream : 

"I  was  lying  at  tjout  feet  and  reached  upward 
with  my  hand  trying  to  grasp  your  clothes  which 
were  silk.  You  made  a  lascivious  gesture,  where- 
upon  I  said  laughingly,  'You  are  then  no  better 
than  the  other  men!"  You  confirmed  this  with  a 
nod." 

Those  who,  following  Freud's  interpretation  of 
dreams,  place  the  sexual  wish-motive  in  the  fore- 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  227 

ground,  will  not  be  at  a  loss  for  an  interpretation ; 
the  requirements  for  a  sexual  basis  for  the  dream 
were  fully  supplied.  The  requirements  could 
also  be  complied  with,  as  the  patient  had  already 
done,  by  bringing  forward  a  reminiscence  from 
childhood,  when  she  solicited  her  father  in  a  simi- 
lar manner ;  her  neurotic  tendency  to  attain  secu- 
rity had  indeed  carefully  collected  all  admonitory 
experiences,  in  order  to  use  the  man  in  an  "an- 
aphylactic" manner  against  repetitions.  Indeed, 
one  could  easily  get  the  assent  of  the  patient  to 
ascribe  to  repressed  impulses  of  the  will  the  emer- 
gence of  souvenirs  of  like  tendency  and  the 
present  experiences.  For  her  neurotic  psyche 
sees  such  exaggerations  as  real  remembrances  and 
makes  them  her  basis  of  operation,  which  she  does 
by  affirming  her  conviction  of  inferiority,  of  her 
fault,  of  her  sin,  of  her  too  feminine  nature,  in 
order  to  defend  with  greater  vehemence  her  supe- 
riority, her  manliness  and  to  increase  her  fore- 
sight. This  increased  masculine  protest,  how- 
ever, which  has  its  source  in  the  defective  perspec- 
tive of  the  patient  who  is  overf earful,  can  not  but 
naturally  increase  the  neurosis.  The  destruction 
of  this  false  perspective  first  (the  foundation  of 
the  neurotic  apperception) ,  and  the  damming  up 
of  the  fictitious  influx  in  the  direction  of  the  mas- 
culine protest,  and  finally  a  right  understanding 


228  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  the  superstitious  faith  in  an  abstract  guiding 
line  and  the  apotheosis  of  the  same  are  the  levers 
which  must  be  used  to  remove  neurosis. 

Our  patient  had  begun  a  liaison  with  a  married 
man  about  the  time  of  this  dream.  When  he 
pressed  himself  upon  her  and  invited  her  to  his 
house  during  his  wife's  absence  at  a  watering 
place,  she  was  troubled  with  all  sorts  of  scruples, 
which  I  strengthened  considerabl5^  Neverthe- 
less, she  justified  the  relation  and  "played  with 
the  fii'e"  because  she  said  the  impatient  writhing 
of  the  man  amused  her.  Incidentally,  her  way 
of  regarding  the  subject  was  an  inimical  act  di- 
rected against  her  relatives  and  against  me  her 
monitor.  Her  own  understanding  could  be  in- 
terpreted as  a  reasonable  excuse.  But  the  pre- 
vious history  of  the  patient,  and  her  conduct  dur- 
ing her  illness  which  lasted  twenty  j^ears,  and  dur- 
ing her  treatment,  showed  plainly  that  she  was 
strongly  under  the  influence  of  the  masculine  pro- 
test, and  that  she  could  have  demanded  the  sub- 
jugation of  the  man,  but  that  she  must  have  re- 
fused to  play  a  feminine  role —  ( she  suffered  from 
anxiety  states  and  crying  out  in  terror  at  night) . 
The  central  point  of  her  psj^chic  attitude  con- 
sisted in  fear  of  the  man  to  whom  she  believed  she 
was  not  equal,  a  fear  which  she  sought  to  com- 
pensate by  her  own  masculine  bearing  and  by 
the  lower  estimation  of  men. 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  229 

After  this  information  concerning  the  patient, 
we  could  venture  to  interpret  the  dream.  She 
exaggerated  her  physical  dependence  on  me  and 
gave  this  conviction  form  by  clothing  it  in  a 
dream  image  which  is  admirably  suited  for  this 
purpose.  *'As  though  I  lay  at  your  feet."  This 
being  "below"  was  taken  as  a  basis  of  operation 
and  we  could  rightly  expect  that  the  manly  im- 
petus would  follow  the  construction  of  a  fictitious 
feminine  role.  She  reached  upwards  with  the 
hands.  The  contamination  contained  my  depri- 
vation of  masculinity.  I  wore  a  silk  dress.  The 
same  psychic  mechanism  hovers  in  the  remaining 
part  of  the  dream.  I  had  admonished  the  pa- 
tient— in  the  dream  I  made  a  lascivious  gesture 
of  which  the  seducer  had  been  guilty,  that  is  to 
say  that  I  am  on  the  same  level,  "I  also  am  not 
better  than  the  other  men."  Besides  this  to  carry 
out  the  idea  further,  I  was  silent  and  showed 
assent  by  a  gesture  in  the  dream.  The  opposite 
thought  that  I  could  be  better  is  insupportable 
to  the  patient;  from  it,  which  gives  me  a  sort  of 
superiority,  originates  the  preventative  dream 
fiction  constructed  after  the  neurotic  perspective. 
The  patient  only  felt  secure  when  all  men  were 
alike  bad.  Then  she  is  following  her  old  guiding 
line  and  feels  superior.  Her  superiority  is  re- 
flected by  her  laughing  in  the  dream  as  well  as  by 
my  silence. 


230  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  circumstance  that  she  began  this  first  dan- 
gerous liason  with  a  married  man  is  worthy  of 
attention.  In  all  similar  cases,  such  a  relation 
may  be  recognized  as  an  effort  to  obtain  security 
from  marriage,  usually  also  from  sexual  rela- 
tions. The  masculine  guiding  line  is  preserved, 
but  reality  asserts  itself  by  feminine  excitements 
and  emotions.  It  is  as  I  have  frequently  pointed 
out,  a  masculine  protest  made  with  feminine 
means  which  recalls  to  me  the  fact  of  psychic  her- 
maphroditism. Finally,  too,  the  superiority  over 
the  lawful  wife  asserts  itself  in  the  three-cornered 
arrangement,  something  which  in  all  analogous 
cases  strengthens  to  an  unusual  degree  the  mo- 
tive force. 

If  we  now  proceed  as  it  were  to  a  comparative 
psychology  and  wish  to  bring  to  conscious  expres- 
sion the  component  parts  of  the  foundation  of  the 
apperception  of  this  patient  and  put  the  question 
before  us,  whence  these  psychic  preparations 
which  lead  to  the  attempt  of  unmanning  the  man 
by  feminine  means  in  order  to  enhance  thereby 
her  feeling  of  worth  in  a  masculine  direction  and 
to  surpass  a  woman's,  the  answer  is:  From  her 
relation  to  her  father  and  mother.  There  she 
derived  the  preparation  to  approach  the  father 
with  love  and  esteem  as  a  guiding  ideal,  learned 
to  master  him  and  had  thus  shown  herself  su- 
perior to  the  mother.     If  one  abstracts  the  mas- 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  231 

culine  protest  of  the  neurotic  child  and  if  one 
apperceives  these  conditions  (as  neurotics  often 
do)  in  a  sexual  scheme  the  "incest  complex"  re- 
mains. One  can  now,  as  I  have  shown  in  former 
works,  take  out  of  the  incest  complex  again  what 
the  masculine  guiding  line  has  placed  in  it, 
namely,  the  assurance  of  the  feeling  of  personal 
worth  under  the  title  of  an  amative  condition. 
In  the  literature  on  psycho-analysis,  the  assertion 
emerges  constantly  that  the  libido  of  the  neurotic 
is  fixed  on  the  father  or  on  the  mother,  on  which 
account  he  seeks  similar  amative  conditions  which 
are  in  reality  that  which  was  loved  in  the  parents. 
The  "will  to  power  and  to  seem"  constitutes  the 
only  amative  condition  and  this  guiding  point  the 
neurotic  seeks  with  all  caution,  but  invariably, 
with  all  his  practiced  preventive  precautions 
which  have  originated  from  and  have  exclusive 
value  from  the  craving  for  security  and  which  re- 
sist any  change.  The  significance  of  the  amative 
feeling  is  no  other  than  the  assurance  of  the  ego- 
consciousness,  and  with  this  the  exclusive  influ- 
ence of  the  same  further  betrays  that  the  motive 
force  there  is  to  be  found  in  the  masculine  pro- 
test which  has  already  constructed  the  incest  con- 
stellation. Where,  as  in  many  cases,  the  attach- 
ment to  one  of  the  parents  is  clearly  obvious,  it  is 
contracted  with  a  purpose,^  arranged  in  order  to 

iln  accordance  with  the  life-plan,  the  finale. 


232  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

escape  decisions  concerning  other  partners,  to  es- 
cape marriage.  Then  usually  the  neurotic  has 
destroyed  the  tendency  to  love  and  marriage  as 
inconsistent  with  the  masculine  final  purpose,  or 
has  not  developed  it. 

The  original  of  the  "three-cornered  situation," 
the  incest  situation,  resolves  itself  on  closer  exam- 
ination into  an  affair  caused  by  the  megalomania 
of  the  child  who  already  reveals  all  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  one  predisposed  to  neurosis,  i.e.,  envy, 
obstinacy,  insatiableness,  precocity.  Without 
the  sexual  appetite  really  taking  part  therein, 
thoughts  and  reflections  of  the  child  may  come  to 
light  which  are  later  valued  and  represented  as 
sexual  when  the  neurotic  tendency  to  gain  secur- 
ity seeks  to  make  such  a  connection.  "I  was  al- 
ready as  a  child,  so  beyond  bounds,  so  culpable, 
my  sexual  appetite  was  so  strong,  I  have  such  a 
criminal  tendency,  I  am  so  much  the  slave  of 
love,"  these  are  the  echoes  in  the  soul  of  the  adult 
neurotic.  "Therefore  I  piust  be  careful."  The 
impulse  to  hold  to  certain  appropriate  memories, 
to  falsifications  of  memory,  to  exaggerating 
traces  of  memories  arises  from  a  fear  of  a  defeat 
in  life.  And  where  the  sexual  appetite  has  really 
been  revealed,  where  the  possibility  of  incest 
really  existed,  the  memory  is  preserved  as  an  ad- 
monitory sign.  That  which  diverts  the  neurotic 
psyche  is  not  memory  or  reminiscence,  but  the 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  233 

fictitious  final  purpose  which  has  derived  profit- 
able situations  therefrom.  It  is  nearly  the  same 
if  these  reminiscences  have  been  repressed  by  the 
conscious  ego,  thrust  back  into  the  unconscious. 
The  neurotic  character  and  the  other  psychic  ges- 
tures with  their  imconscious  mechanism  are  none 
the  less  opposed  to  disposition  in  proper  order  in 
reality. 

Thus  it  was  in  the  case  of  our  female  patient. 
She  related,  for  example,  that  she  always  wished 
to  win  the  father  to  her  side  and  that  she  accom- 
plished this  by  carefully  falling  in  with  his  train 
of  thought  and  his  wishes.  It  was  not  difficult  to 
leave  her  mother.  From  the  age  of  fourteen,  she 
began  to  refuse  to  kiss  him  because  she  began  to 
feel  a  peculiar  erotic  emotion.  In  explanation  of 
this,  I  might  add  that  the  patient  had  from  her 
twelfth  year  manifested  unmistakable  signs  of  a 
neurosis.  Her  situation  at  that  time  permits  us 
to  understand  the  significance  of  this  attempt  at 
security — through  the  construction  of  erotic  prep- 
arations. She  had  always  been  an  unruly,  boy- 
ish creature  who  had  already  learned  to  feel  the 
force  of  the  sexual  appetite  and  for  some  time 
had  already  practiced  masturbation.  About  this 
time  also,  men  began  to  make  advances  to  her  to 
which  she  reacted  with  extreme  anxiety.  Her 
craving  for  security  had  progressed  so  far  that 
the  patient  had  strengthened  the  anxiety  prepar- 


234  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

edness  which  had  been  constructed  out  of  real 
emotions  of  anxiety  which  she  had  originally  felt, 
and  now  she  was  able,  whenever  she  feared  a  de- 
feat in  the  sense  of  being  obliged  to  play  a  fem- 
inine role,  any  possible  cause  of  which  she  was  on 
the  alert  to  anticipate,  to  develop  in  a  hallucina- 
tory manner,  a  condition  of  anxiety,  so  to  speak, 
discount  it,  such  as  would  have  corresponded  for 
example  to  the  eventuality  of  pregnancy.  This 
anticipation  and  hallucinatory  awakening  of  sen- 
sations which  correspond  to  a  fear  of  defeat  which 
might  arise  in  the  future  are  the  work  of  the  pre- 
ventive craving  for  security  and  constitute,  as  I 
have  ah-eady  emphasized,^  the  essential  part  of 
hypochondria,  of  phobia  and  of  numerous  neuras- 
thenic and  hysterical  symptoms.  I  will  only 
state  briefly  here  that  the  essential  part  of  a  psy- 
chosis, too,  depends  upon  a  similar  dogmatic  an- 
ticipatory representation  of  a  fear  or  a  wish, 
which  the  craving  for  security  offers  for  the  better 
testimony  in  a  phase  of  great  insecurity,  in  strong 
dependence  on  the  fictitious  guiding  line  for  the 
conservation  of  the  ego-consciousness.  When 
our  patient  foresaw  a  loss  of  prestige  and  pro- 
vided against  it  by  a  condition  of  anxiety  in  a  hal- 
lucinatory manner  she  felt  most  secure  against  it. 
At  times,  the  hallucinatory  emotion  needed  a  fur- 
ther strengthening,  then  the  patient  arrived  at 

2  "Siphilidophobia,"  loc.  cit. 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  235 

the  compulsory  idea  that  she  had  killed  a  new 
born  child.  In  the  analysis  this  idea  in  regard 
to  the  man,  at  times  a  place  anxiety,  was  shown  to 
be  connected  with  an  admonition  of  her  mother's. 
This  signifies  that  the  patient  rescued  from  her 
memories  even  the  words  of  her  mother  whom 
she  constantly  fought  against,  in  so  far  as  these 
words  were  adapted  to  her  tendency  to  seek  se- 
curity.^ 

Among  these  preparatory  conditions  an  event 
occurred  which  favored  greatly  the  hardy  con- 
struction of  these  preparations  for  security.  One 
of  her  cousins  gave  birth  to  a  child  out  of  wedlock, 
a  fact  which,  in  a  family  of  respectable  mid- 
dle class  people,  caused  the  greatest  excitement, 
especially  as  the  seducer  shook  the  dust  of  the 
place  from  his  feet.  Our  growing  understand- 
ing for  the  development  of  this  girl  permits  us  to 
understand  why  this  event  must  have  accelerated 
the  development  of  the  neurosis  and  how  it  came 
that  the  words  of  the  mother  to  whom  she  ordi- 
narily showed  little  attention  were  given  such 
importance.  The  patient  was  from  her  early 
childhood  wild  and  boyish  and  of  great  strength, 
preferred  boys'  games  and  avoided  every  femi- 
nine emotion.  She  can  still  remember  with  what 
vehemence  she  refused  to  play  with  dolls  or  to 

3  Along  with  this  the  mother  should  also  be  at  fault  with  her 
apodictic  threats. 


236  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

engage  in  needlework.  The  personality  of  the 
father  preponderated  over  that  of  the  mother  to 
a  remarkable  degree.  An  unmarried  aunt  who 
lived  with  the  family  of  our  patient  took  pleas- 
ure in  her  masculine  manners,  had  a  beardlike 
growth  of  hair  and  a  masculine  voice.  To  this 
strong  and  constantly  recurring  memory  was  as- 
sociated another  event  of  later  occurrence  and 
which  furnished  the  necessary  resonance  to  the 
dominating  tendency  of  the  patient  to  wish  to 
become  a  man.  She  remembered  that  one  of  her 
fellow  scholars  with  whom  she  had  long  been  as- 
sociated— a  pseudo  hermaphrodite — was  changed 
into  a  man.  These  and  similar  communications 
— for  example,  the  special  interest  for  hermaph- 
roditism, are  sufficient  according  to  my  experi- 
ence for  the  preliminary  assumption  that  patients 
of  this  sort  wish  to  divest  themselves  of  the  ap- 
pearance of  femininity,  and  wish  to  assume  mas- 
culine characteristics,  as  though  they  fully  be- 
lieved in  the  possibility  of  a  metamorphosis  and 
that  they  invariably  make  an  attempt  to  push 
forward  to  the  manly  role  which  is  considered  by 
them  to  be  the  higher.  Among  these  attempts  to 
change  fate  two  interest  us  particularly — the  for- 
mation of  the  neurotic  character  and  the  neu- 
rotic preparations  in  the  form  of  the  neuroses  and 
their  sj-mptoms. 

As  a  trait  of  character  which  is  not  rare  with 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  237 

such  patients,  I  may  cite  the  tendency  to  expose 
nakedness,  and  indeed  in  childhood  or  in  later 
years,  in  dreams,  in  phantasy  or  in  neurotic  at- 
tacks during  which  they  tear  the  clothes  from  the 
body  as  though  they  would  divest  themselves  of 
the  modesty  which  they  regard  as  feminine,  as 
though  they  wished  to  make  a  parade  of  fictitious 
large  masculine  genital  organs  and  thus  belittle 
others.  It  may  be  seen  from  these  cases  how  one 
perversion,  that  of  exhibitionism,  does  not  origi- 
nate from  a  congenital  sexual  constitution,  but 
that  the  neurosis  which  seeks  to  secure  the  ego- 
consciousness  is  impelled  to  suppress  the  feeling 
of  inferiority,  to  overcome  it  because  in  this  neu- 
rosis the  lively  desire  to  be  a  complete  man,  to  be 
of  great  account,  finds  expression.  The  sexual 
jargon  is  there — in  merely  a  form  of  expression 
an  "as-if"  of  the  sexual  content  of  the  thought 
or  want,  only  a  symbol  of  the  scheme  of  life. 
Also  the  feminine,  exaggerated  modesty  of  such 
patients  is  an  expedient  in  the  opposite  direction 
for  the  purpose  of  deceiving  concerning  the  lack 
of  masculinity.'*  The  absence  of  modesty  in  such 
cases  answers  for  the  desired  masculinity,  is  the 
masculine  protest,  and  more  marked  immodesty 
points  invariably  to  disquieting  dreams  or 
thoughts  concerning  curtailed  genital  organs  and 
hence  releases  feelings  of  protest  of  a  masculine 

*  Adler — The  masculine  attitude  in  female  neurotics,  etc. 


2S8  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

nature  which  considerably  strengthen  the  line  of 
ambition,  of  the  desire  to  be  first,  to  possess  every- 
thing, of  obstinacy.  In  the  further  development 
of  the  neurosis  the  desire  for  mastery  and  for 
conquest  as  well  as  the  tendency  to  deprive  others 
of  worth  may  assert  itself  in  the  form  of  castra- 
tion phantasies  and  their  rationalization  (Jones) . 
The  inclination  to  disarm  the  partner,  to  con- 
stantly feel  the  assurance  of  superiority  which 
regularly  constitutes  the  content  of  exhibitionism 
are  often  met  with.  At  times,  the  lack  of  neat- 
ness and  indecency  in  girls  may  be  interpreted  as 
a  trace  of  the  desire  for  masculinity. 

All  of  these  traits  of  character  although  they 
at  times  seemed  contradictory  were  all  active  in 
one  direction  toward  the  fictitious  final  goal  in 
this  patient.  It  was  not  difficult  to  discover  a 
period  of  uncertainty  in  her  early  childhood  as 
preliminary  to  her  affectation  of  masculine  traits, 
where  she,  because  of  lack  of  insight,  misled  by 
boyish  traits  and  her  compensatory  ambition, 
cherished  the  hope  of  metamorphosing  herself  at 
some  future  time  into  a  man.  This  final  purpose 
of  developing  from  a  hermaphroditic  condition 
to  a  male  is  easy  to  perceive  if  her  boyish  charac- 
teristics are  understood  as  preparations  for  her 
fictitious  final  goal.  Here  also  belongs  her  in- 
clination to  put  on  boys'  clothes,  a  phenomenon 
which    as    with    Hirschfeld's     "Transvertiter" 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  239 

flows  from  the  psychic  d}Tiamic  just  described. 
Her  ideal  was  particularly  distinct  in  the  phan- 
tasies and  day  dreams  of  her  childhood.  Influ- 
enced by  fairy  stories  and  myths  ("Dwarf  Nose," 
"Thousand  and  One  Nights,"  etc.)  she  imagined 
the  most  varied  changes  went  on  in  her,  some- 
times believed  herself  changed  into  a  Nix  or  mer- 
maid, in  which  form  a  fish  tail  terminated  the 
lower  parts  of  the  body,  which  is  indicative  of 
the  peculiar  sense.  At  this  time  a  distinct  neu- 
rotic symptom  set  in,  in  this  connection;  she  could 
not  walk  at  times,  as  if,  instead  of  legs,  she  had 
a  fish  tail.  Also  a  shoe  fetichism  in  this  connec- 
tion showed  the  masculine  tendency  and  devel- 
oped in  the  form  that  she  insisted  on  wearing 
large  shoes,  we  might  say  masculine  shoes,  be- 
cause her  feet  hurt.  From  Ovid's  Metamorpho- 
sis which  in  her  rage  for  reading  soon  fell  into 
her  hands,  she  borrowed  another  fiction  which 
emerged  during  her  treatment  in  her  dreams ;  she 
imagined  she  had  been  metamorphosed  in  such  a 
way  that  the  lower  part  of  her  body  became  a 
firmly  rooted  trunk.  In  this  and  in  similar  ways, 
she  gave  to  herself  the  answer  to  the  question 
concerning  her  future  sexual  role. 

We  will  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  in  this  and 
similar  cases,  the  attitude  towards  woman  was 
also  influenced  by  the  masculine  final  goal.  In 
the  preparations  for  the  future  the  amative  and 


240  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

sexual  relations  must  have  had  a  place  and  there- 
fore we  soon  find  our  patient  assuming  the  ideal 
masculine  role  of  protector  to  a  younger  and 
weaker  sister.  Furthermore,  there  were  sadistic 
acts  towards  little  girls  and  servants,  but  also 
towards  little,  girlish  boys.  Thus  we  find  in  the 
masculine  guiding  line  of  the  patient  an  intermix- 
ture of  secondary  features,  auxiliary  traits  of 
homosexuality  ^  and  masculine  sadism,  whose  ar- 
rangement resulted  from  the  construction  of  the 
masculine  predispositions  and  which  is  the  only 
possible  substitute  if  masculine  sexuality  were  se- 
lected by  her  neurotic  apperception  from  the  im- 
pressions of  hfe.  As  will  be  shown,  both  of  these 
perversions  are  circuitous  ways  and  expedients, 
secondary  guiding  lines  which  grow  out  of  the  ex- 
aggerated masculine  protest.  The  question  con- 
cerning a  constitutional  tendency  to  perversions 
is  wholly  irrelevant,  because  the  neurosis  seeking 
assurance  and  choosing  its  material  in  conform- 
ity with  this  tendency  can  fasten  upon  the  most 
harmless  relations,  lend  to  them  proportions  and 
value  which  may  become  immeasurable  in  so  far 
as  the  neiu'osis  requires  this  by  exaggerating 
them  and  lending  them  high  values. 

6  Moll  has  emphasized  sharply  the  frequent  association  of  homo- 
sexuality with  exhibitionism.  Our  discussion  reveals  the  inner  re- 
lationship. Both  perverse  tendencies  are  expressions  of  the  mas- 
culine protest. 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  241 

One  day  as  the  patient,  now  fourteen  years  of 
age,  was  accosted  by  a  man  on  the  stairs  who 
made  advances  to  her,  an  insane  idea  developed 
on  this  foundation  which  is  easy  to  see  through. 
She  imagined  herself  for  many  months  the  mur- 
derer of  domestic  servants  (Hugo  Schenk)  and 
thus  by  means  of  extreme  abstractions  which  were 
introduced  for  the  purpose  of  security,  she  ef- 
fected an  interlacing  of  her  masculine,  her  homo- 
sexual and  her  sadistic  fiction,  while  she  brought 
them  to  more  distinct  expression  and  at  the  same 
time  held  herself  in  anticipation  of  an  event  which 
she  feared.  These  three  conditions,  mere  ab- 
stractions from  reality,  strengthening  of  guiding 
lines  leading  to  masculinity  and  upwards,  and 
anticipation  of  the  directing  ideal  mostly  in  a  dis- 
guised form,  are  the  fundamental  components  of 
the  psychotic  construction.  The  role  of  indige- 
nous and  exogenous  poisons  consists  in  many 
cases  in  the  circimistance  that  these  call  up  a  feel- 
ing of  heightened  insecurity  which  can  also  result 
from  psychic  experiences.  But  the  neurotic 
tendency  toward  security,  which  is  strengthened 
in  cases  of  increased  uncertainty,  is  always  the 
effective  cause  of  the  psychotic  construction.  It 
then  draws  more  forcibly  into  its  power  the  neu- 
rotic method  of  apperception  and  thus  causes  a 
"barring  off "  (ahsperrung) .  The  use  of  female 
domestic  servants  in  the  psychic  construction  of 


242  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

our  patient  brings  to  expression  the  tendency  to 
depreciation  of  females.  In  her  insane  system 
anxiety  is  strongly  manifested  and  is  distinctly 
recognizable  as  a  means  to  obtain  security  against 
the  male  and  thus  coordinated  to  the  purpose  of 
her  insanity  constituting  a  second  expression  of 
her  aggravated  masculine  protest.® 

A  further  pei*version  of  our  patient  of  which 
she  was  dimly  conscious  consisted  in  a  fellatio 
phantasy.  The  realities  connected  therewith  and 
which  found  application  in  the  neurotic  tendency 
of  her  phantasy  were  well  known  to  the  patient. 
She  had  always  been  very  dainty  and  as  a  child 
had  always  been  a  slave  to  this  tendency.  Even 
to-day  this  characteristic  often  asserts  itself. 
But  it  happened  not  infrequently  that  she  took 
loathsome  things  into  her  mouth  without  disgust. 
In  her  avoidance  of  the  feminine  role  this  pa- 
tient tried,  because  parturition  seemed  to  her  un- 
acceptable and  especially  feminine,  to  imagine 
this  perverse  situation  temporarily  possible. 
The  suggestion  originated  from  a  conversation 
which  she  had  overheard.     This  perversion  was 

6  The  accentuation  of  the  fictitious  guiding  line  in  the  neurotic 
who  becomes  insecure  is  responsible  for  the  fact  that  he  has  to 
utilize  stronger  measures  for  the  purpose  of  gaining  security. 
Anxiety  where  another  merely  visualizes,  hypochondriasis  where 
another  employs  caution.  Our  patient  had  both  the  anxiety  and 
the  delusion  where  for  other  girls  morality  and  caution  were  still 
sufficient.    Thus  also  in  place  of  caution,  hallucinations,  and  fears. 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  243 

asserted  of  a  female  neighbor  living  independ- 
ently and  in  pleasant  relations.  Early  forced 
away  from  the  partner,  she  nevertheless  sought 
to  keep  in  touch  with  reahty  and  found  in  the 
avoidance  of  labor,  supported  by  her  exaggerated 
leaning  to  disgusting  procedures  the  way  to  this, 
perverse  phantasy.  But  her  masculine  protest 
opposed  even  this.  Her  crying  out  at  night  was 
as  a  rule  over  dream  situations  of  this  sort,  ar- 
ranged tentatively,  and  with  this  masculine  pro- 
test, she  answered  to  the  femininely  perverse  role 
which  she  imputed  to  herself. 

The  psychic  attitude  of  the  patient  described 
at  the  beginning  shows  the  essential  difference. 
At  least  a  part  of  her  fear  of  the  man  and  of  the 
masculine  protest  was  present  which  after  a  short 
time  made  room  for  a  normal  attitude.  What 
could  make  one  apprehensive  was  the  disposition 
to  a  difficult,  socially  inferior  situation  which 
could  only  be  obviated  by  further  inroads. 
Could  there,  however,  be  expected  a  much  more 
favorable  solution  of  the  problem  of  this  patient 
who  has  declined  and  who  has  been  robbed  of  all 
social  connections  by  the  long  duration  of  the 
neurosis,  and  is  destitute? 

With  all  the  solidity  and  obstinacy  which  cling 
to  neurotic  symptoms  and  the  neurotic  character 
there  is  often  a  changeableness  and  instability 
which  has  attracted  the  attention  of  many  writ- 


244  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ers.  The  cliaracter  of  capriciousness,  of  uncer- 
tainty of  temper,  of  suggestibility  and  of  suscep- 
tibility to  influence  (Janet,  Striimpell,  Raimann 
and  others)  was  wrongly  given  as  an  important 
sign  of  a  psychogenic  affection.  But  attention 
must,  however,  be  called  to  the  fact  that  in  psychic 
phenomena  which,  as  we  have  shown,  only  present 
means,  modes  of  expression  and  purposeful  dis- 
positions, variability  must  often  be  preserved 
among  the  other  characteristics,  because  it  may 
also  occur  as  an  auxiliary  line  and  serve  the  ficti- 
tious final  goal,  the  maximating  of  the  ego-con- 
sciousness. The  neurotic  self-valuation  will  at 
any  rate  take  those  variations  as  a  point  of  de- 
parture for  a  way  of  thinking,  will  exaggerate  the 
judgment  of  weakness  by  strengthening  the  sug- 
gestibility, will  support  it  with  selected  neuroses 
for  tne  most  part  falsely  estimated  in  order  to 
gain  in  a  neurosis  a  strengthened  impetus.  As 
the  following  case  teaches  for  example.  A  short 
time  ago,  a  Viennese  physician  brought  forward 
in  a  public  session,  examples  of  making  waking 
suggestions  which  indeed  succeeded  with  a  certain 
lady  on  a  few  evenings.  When  the  same  lady 
was  expected  to  offer  herself  again  for  a  demon- 
stration on  a  subsequent  evening  she  responded 
with  an  hysterical  attack  of  such  nature  that  the 
further  demonstrations  were  forbidden  by  the 
police.     In  the  psychotherapeutic  treatment,  one 


ASCETICISM,  LOVE,  ETC.  245 

must  always  be  prepared  for  the  circumstance 
that  the  introduction  of  the  patient  into  the  ex- 
periment heightens  the  mascuhne  protest  and  the 
disposition  to  attacks  and  is  above  all  forced  to 
prevent  this  reaction.  Every  improvement  in 
the  condition  is  felt  by  the  patient  as  compulsion 
and  conquest  and  a  relapse  often  follows  from  no 
other  reason  than  that  an  improvement  had  pre- 
ceded. The  many  ambivalent  traits  of  neurotics 
and  psychotic  patients  arranged  according  to  a 
polar  principle  (Bleuler)  are  constructed  on  the 
hermaphroditic  splitting  of  the  neurotic  psyche 
and  obey  exclusively  the  ideal  of  personal  worth 
reassui*ed  by  hypersensibility  and  great  caution. 


CHAPTER  III 

NEUROTIC    principles:    sympathy,    coquetry, 

NARCISSISM,  PSYCHIC  HERMAPHRODITISM, 
HALLUCINATORY  SECURITY,  VIRTUE,  CON- 
SCIENCE, PEDANTRY,  FANATIC  ATTACHMENT 
TO  TRUTH 

In  our  preceding  observation  we  were  able  to 
follow  the  various  attempts,  preparations  and 
dispositions  of  a  patient  which  were  conditioned 
by  the  setting  in  of  the  masculine  tendency.  The 
resulting  fear  of  the  man  was  so  great  that  every 
amative  relation  was  prevented  until  treatment 
made  it  possible.  In  very  many  cases  the  mascu- 
line protest  manifests  itself  in  an  apparently  op- 
posite direction.  The  patients  constantly  begin 
new  relations  which,  however,  easily  languish  and 
are  menaced  by  peculiar  turns  of  fortune.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  are  capable  of  contracting 
marriage  one  or  more  times  and  also  of  dissolving 
the  marriage  again.  Very  often  the  deepest  pas- 
sions of  love  are  shown  which  are  strong  enough 
to  overcome  all  obstacles  and  are  usually  only 
augmented  by  them.  The  same  phenomeha  are 
observed  in  male  neurotics.     Upon  closer  obser- 

246 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  247 

vation  the  well  known  traits  of  the  neurotic  sub- 
ject are  again  found  (first  of  all  the  desire  for 
mastery)  which  make  use  of  the  relations  of  life 
as  a  vehicle  for  realizing  themselves  demonstrably 
in  the  same  manner  as  do  his  other  characteristics. 
The  desire  to  possess  everything  finds  expression 
in  such  a  way  that  all  men,  at  times,  all  human 
beings,  become  an  object  for  conquest  and  in  pur- 
suing this  object,  coquetry,  necessity  for  tender- 
ness, and  discontent  with  the  lot  assigned  by  fate, 
play  an  important  part.  The  preference  for 
difficulties  is  often  remarkable.  A  little  girl  pre- 
fers only  big  men,  or  love  first  declares  itself  when 
the  parents  forbid  it,  while  the  attainable  is 
treated  with  open  disdain.  In  the  conversation 
and  deliberation  of  such  girls  the  limiting  word 
emerges  constantly.  They  wish  only  a  cultured, 
only  a  broad,  only  a  masculine  man,  only  a  pla- 
tonic  love,  only  a  marriage  without  children,  only 
a  husband  who  will  permit  their  entire  liberty,  etc. 
The  tendency  toward  detraction  is  often  so  obvi- 
ous in  this  process  that  hardly  a  man  remains  who 
would  fit  the  requirements.  Usually  they  have 
a  completed,  often  unconscious  ideal,  in  whom 
are  mingled  the  features  of  the  father,  the 
brother,  an  imaginary  personage,  or  a  literary  or 
historical  character.  The  more  we  become  ac- 
quainted with  these  ideals,  the  more  are  we  con- 
vinced that  they  are  advanced  as   a  fictitious 


248  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

standard  in  order  to  detract  from  reality  by  com- 
parison with  them.  The  psychic  tendencj'  with 
the  accompanying  features  of  an  "unwomanly" 
nature,  which  frequentl}^  gives  rise  to  sexual  lib- 
erty, unfaithfulness  and  unchastity,  reveals  ob- 
viously a  striving  after  the  masculine  ideal. 
Analysis  often  shows  original  organic  inferiority, 
an  exaggerated  feeling  of  inferiority,  a  remark- 
able original  higher  estimation  of  the  male  which 
follows  on  the  heels  of  detraction  as  a  means  of 
assurance.  Other  assurances  strengthen  the 
opinion  we  have  formed.  Such  ideas  as,  all  men 
are  rough,  tyrannical,  have  a  bad  odor,  are  in- 
fected, etc.,  reveal  the  influence  upon  appercep- 
tion of  this  trend.  In  male  neurotics  are  ob- 
served ideas  of  a  suspicious  nature  which  make 
the  accusation  that  all  women  are  sinful,  un- 
stable, frivolous,  psychologically  weak-minded, 
abandoned  unrestrainedly  to  their  sexuality. 

Our  teachers,  philosophers  and  poets,  who 
form  the  ideal  of  our  time,  the  Secret  Emperor 
("heimlichen  Kaiser")  (Simmel),  are  also  not 
infrequently  under  the  sway  of  the  same  fictions. 
The  neurotic  is  therefore  likely  to  seize  upon 
them  in  order  to  gain  a  firm  guiding  line  in  the 
unrest  of  life.  For  the  above  neurotic  tendency, 
Schopenhauer,  Strindberg,  Moebius,  and  Wein- 
inger,  besides  the  religious  teachers  and  fathers 
of  the  church,  have  produced  the  most  pleasing 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  249 

cleiche.  The  malleus  malificarimn  and  the  dis- 
grace of  the  burning  of  witches  followed  the 
learned  disputes  of  the  clerics  over  the  question 
whether  woman  has  a  soul,  whether  she  is  a  hu- 
man being.  The  reassuring  schematic  fictions  of 
neurotic  girls  are  derived  from  a  childish  view 
of  the  world  because  art  is  still,  nearly  exclu- 
sively, masculine  territory  and  the  apperception 
offers  a  material  less  suited  to  it,  and  therefore 
these  fictions  of  neurotic  girls  are  brought  into 
harmony  with  reality  with  greater  difficulty. 

Where  reality,  however,  is  able  to  influence 
the  neurotic  fiction  of  the  girl  it  usually  causes 
traits  of  character  and  tendencies  which  reveal 
clearly  enough  the  masculine  inclination  to  con- 
quer man,  or  where  there  is  the  strongest  tend- 
ency to  gain  security — in  a  homosexual  way — to 
conquer  woman,  but  which  make  these  neurotics 
nevertheless  seek,  as  a  lover  or  as  a  husband,  the 
man  to  whom  she  denies  value  and  who  is  only 
fitted  in  a  small  degree  for  conflict.  The  expres- 
sion of  sympathy  can  in  such  cases  often  disguise 
the  state  of  affairs,  and  love  is  then  free  if  the 
man  is  powerless,  enfeebled,  a  cripple,  aged.  In 
phantasies,  dreams  and  hallucinations  in  which 
the  man  is  castrated  or  changed  into  a  woman, 
or  corpse,  is  "below,"  and  especially  in  the  tend- 
ency to  see  the  man  without  weapons,  small, 
abased ;  is  revealed  the  compulsion  of  the  mascu- 


250  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

line  guiding  fiction  and  finds  in  necrophilia  its 
highest  expression.^  Another  road,  as  we  have 
already  stated,  leads  over  the  line  of  the  desire 
to  possess  everything,  towards  neurotic  coquetry. 
The  masculine  protest  is  therein  revealed,  first  in 
the  tendency  to  compensate  a  feeling  of  infe- 
riority, of  deficiency  apperceived  thl'ough  the 
picture  of  the  lost  masculine  member  by  means 
of  domination  of  many  or  of  all  men.  Secondly, 
by  the  refusal  of  a  feminine  role  in  sexual  rela- 
tions, in  marriage.  In  place  of  this  despised 
role,  expedients  are  resorted  to  which  are  dic- 
tated by  the  manly  guiding  line,  such  as  sexual 
anesthesia  and  perversions  of  all  sorts,  among 
which  the  sadistic  predominates.  Bloch  has  em- 
phasized in  a  fine  manner  the  desire  for  domina- 
tion by  the  coquette  when  he  says:      ("Beitrage 

yZur  Atiologie  der  Psychopathia  sex,"  1903)  "Co- 

^\      ^    \  quetry,  which  may  be  defined  as  the  eff ort^^of 

women  to  attach  men  to  them,  makes  use,  to  a 

C    considerable  extent,  of  purely  sexual  means  to 

\attain  its  object,  and  is,  in  this  respect,  an  efflux 
)of  the  true  gynecokratic  instinct."  We  can  only 
add  that  these  "gynecokratic  instincts"  are  con- 
structed according  to  the  picture  of  the  resem- 
blance to  men  and  thus  prove  themselves  to  be 
dependent  on  a  masculine  ideal  although  in  the 

(       1  Eulenburg  emphasized  in  the  same  manner  the  relationship  be- 
'    tween  active  algolagnia   (v.  Schrenck-Notzing)  and  necrophilia. 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  251 

attainment  thereof  feminine  means  are  resorted 
to  as  expedients  because  they  are  the  only  ones 
at  hand.  The  attention  and  interest  of  these 
neurotics  (among  whom  the  mascuhne  coquettes 
are  remarkable  because  they  seek  to  carry 
through  their  triumph  valued  as  masculine  by 
feminine  means)  is  directed  towards  making  an 
impression  and  to  force  others  into  their  service. 
A  result  of  this  trait  of  character  is  that  the  neu- 
rotic strengthening  of  these  secondaiy  guiding 
lines  leads  to  overestimation  of  self  and  there- 
fore also  to  exaggeration  of  the  desire  for  mas- 
tery, of  pride,  and  of  the  tendency  to  detract 
from  the  worth  of  others.  Hence  we  need  not  be 
surprised  that  the  object  of  the  desire,  as  a  rule, 
appears  to  be  overvalued  through  the  narcissism 
(Naecke)  of  the  patient.  This  overestimation 
is  rather  an  a  priori  condition  in  the  construction 
of  the  relation  and  in  it  is  reflected  the  exagger- 
ated ego  of  the  female  patient.^ 

In  the  psychotherapeutic  treatment  these 
cases  produce  especially  the  appearance  of  "be- 
ing in  love  with  the  physician."  It  may,  how- 
ever, be  easily  seen  that  this  "transfer  of  love" 
corresponds  to  one  of  the  numerous  preparations 
for  conflict  used  for  overcoming  the  obstacle  and 
thus  to  get  the  better  of  the  superiority  of  the 

2  The  belief  in  personal  magic  is  so  strong  that  every  resistance 
leads  to  new  endeavors. 


252  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

man,  of  the  masculine  physician;  and  it  may  be 
easily  seen  that  the  feeling  of  deficiency  which 
calls  forth  this  peculiar  obscure  form  of  the  mas- 
culine protest  springs  from  their  femininity 
which  they  feel  as  inferiority.  In  no  case,  how- 
ever, no  matter  how  far  the  neurotic  may  carry 
coquetry,  does  it  reach  far  enough  to  include  sub- 
jection to  the  man.  Sooner  or  later  the  man  is 
threatened  with  defeat  which  carries  with  it  loss 
of  dignity,  and  in  fact,  always  when  the  neurotic 
patient  feels  the  situation  to  be  too  feminine. 
This  moment  may  arrive  at  different  stages  but 
it  is  as  a  rule,  contact,  a  kiss,  expectation  of  sex- 
ual relations,  fear  of  pregnancy  or  of  childbirth 
which  releases  the  heightened  tendency  to  gain 
reassurance  and  causes  the  outbreak  of  that 
which  is  ordinarily  termed  a  neurosis  or  psy- 
chosis. Then  the  stronger  abstraction  of  reality 
comes  into  its  right,  the  fictions  assert  themselves 
with  greater  distinctness,  the  tendency  to  detract 
from  the  value  of  the  man  leads  to  actions  and 
deeds  which  apparently  have  lost  all  meaning, 
and  the  inimical  dispositions  of  the  aggressive- 
ness, and  with  these  the  neurotic  traits  of  char- 
acter come  to  light. 

Every  neurotic  possesses  to  some  degree  this 
coquetry  which  has  its  origin  in  narcissism. 
They  originate  indeed  from  his  hypostasized  idea 
of  personal  value  and  is  founded  like  this  upon 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  253 

an  original  feeling  of  inferiority.  The  fact  that 
neurotics,  especially  the  species  just  described, 
find  it  so  hard  to  separate  themselves  from  per- 
sons or  things  is  in  harmony  with  this.  The 
parting  from  a  person,  seemingly  not  in  close  re- 
lations with  the  nem'otic,  to  say  nothing  of  a 
seemingly  loved  person,  is  capable  of  producing 
the  most  severe  neurotic  symptoms,  neuralgic 
attacks,  depression,  loss  of  sleep,  attacks  of  weep- 
ing, etc.  On  the  other  hand,  threats  of  deser- 
tion or  separation  are  not  rare  and  are  used  to 
bring  forth  proof  of  the  influence  over  the  person 
threatened.  That  the  masculine  protest  is  domi- 
nant in  this  coquetry  is  proved  from  various  phe- 
nomena. The  strong  disinclination  for  a  dis- 
tinctly feminine  role  has  already  been  empha- 
sized; it  is  capable  in  these  cases  of  calling  forth 
a  remarkable  picture,  the  appearance  of  a  double 
life — a  splitting  of  consciousness,  an  ambiva- 
lence (Bleuler).  Analysis  constantly  furnishes 
greater  proof  for  the  striving  toward  masculin- 
ity. Dreams,  phantasies,  hallucinations,  onset 
of  psychosis  show  in  a  most  distinct  manner  the 
striving  to  become  a  man,  or  one  of  the  equiva- 
lents, as  fear  of  a  feminine  lot.  The  strong 
tendency  toward  detraction  of  men  originates 
from  the  effort  to  attain  an  equal  value  with  the 
male  and  gives  rise  in  sexual  events  to  the  mas- 
culine role,  which  is  revealed  in  frigidity,  in  de- 


254  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

sire  to  be  first  and  in  those  perversions  which 
force  the  man  to  take  a  slavish  and  debasing  po- 
sition. 

Often  the  onset  of  the  neurosis  may  be  as- 
smned  to  have  set  in  when  such  symptoms  as  fear 
of  a  decision,  of  a  test,  of  marriage,  pubhc  ap- 
pearance, of  place  (Platzangst),  require  medi- 
cal treatment.  These  anxieties  arise  at  the 
emerging  of  a  contradiction  in  the  masculine  pro- 
test, if  in  pursuing  the  same  a  set-back,  a  femi- 
nine lot,  a  defeat  is  threatened  and  hence  the 
forced  admission  of  femininity. 

This  was  the  case  with  one  of  my  patients  who, 
several  years  ago,  just  before  her  first  public  ap- 
pearance, became  ill  with  piano-player's  cramp. 
This  neurosis  furnished  a  good  excuse  for  escap- 
ing from  a  dreaded  failure.  The  closer  exami- 
nation into  the  conditions  of  this  illness  showed 
(a  neurotic  illusion  in  which  the  patient  at  the 
sight  of  notes  was  reminded  of  male  genital  or- 
gans. The  first  explanation  to  suggest  itself 
was  that  of  an  exaggerated  or  repressed  sexuality 
whose  reflection  in  the  piano-player's  cramp  was 
to  be  sought  in  the  repression  of  the  inclination 
to  masturbation.  The  result  furnished  an  en- 
tirely different  explanation.  The  triumph  be- 
fore the  public  was  supposed  to  signify  an  equal- 
ity with  the  man,  masculinity.  This  fiction  was 
in  contradiction  with  reality,  with  her  femininity. 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  255 

SO  that  a  public  appearance  equaled  a  final  bal- 
ancing of  the  facts  (many  talented  girls  and 
women  are  wrecked  for  the  same  reason).  The 
sense  of  reality  of  the  patient  placed  instead 
of  the  facts  would  not  admit  this  condition  of 
things,  and  arranged  by  a  symbolic  interpreta- 
tion of  the  heads  of  the  notes  works  a  fictitious 
abstraction  which  recalled  the  femininity  and  be- 
came a  regressive  signal.  The  contradiction  in 
the  masculine  protest  of  this  patient  is  mani- 
fested, as  is  nearly  always  the  case  in  the  neu- 
rosis, in  the  unrealizability  of  the  fiction  just 
when  before  the  decision  the  possibility  of  a  fail- 
ure estimated  as  "feminine"  in  character  emerged 
— a  common  phenomenon  which  needs  no  expla- 
nation. Now  the  traits  of  anxiety,  of  shyness, 
of  stage-fright  are  strengthened  and  they  either 
themselves  furnish  excuses  or  preparations  and 
predispositions  (in  our  case  pains  and  inability 
to  move  the  hands)  and  divert  the  attention  from 
the  menace  to  the  masculine  protest.  But  in  this 
case  also  the  force  of  the  masculine  protest  is  as- 
tonishing, it  forms  a  preparedness  for  con- 
flict in  the  direction  of  the  masculine  protest  even 
out  of  the  illness  in  which  the  patient  takes  ref- 
uge. This  girl  had  entered  upon  the  career  of  a 
virtuoso  against  her  will,  forced  thereto  by  her 
unyielding  mother.  The  wrecking  of  her  moth- 
er's ambitious  plans  meant  for  the  daughter  a 


256  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

victory  which  recompensed  her  in  part.  That 
which  her  obstinacy,  her  masculine  tendency  was 
not  able  to  accomplish,  was  successful  through 
her  illness  as  soon  as  note-stems  called  up  to  her 
the  menacing  souvenir  "you  are  a  woman,  take 
care,  do  not  allow  yourself  to  be  forced  to  a  femi- 
nine obedient  role  by  your  mother — conquer  her." 
A  further  construction,  an  excuse  which  yielded 
a  foundation  for  the  attitude  toward  her  mother, 
lay  in  the  heightened  feeling  that  her  younger 
sister  was  given  preference.  This  train  of 
thought,  as  well  as  her  efforts  to  gain  exclusive 
control  over  every  one,  her  mother,  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  family,  all  human  beings  in  the  en- 
vironment, even  of  a  dog,  was  reflected  in  the 
heightened  characteristics  of  her  coquetry  and 
found  expression,  for  example,  in  one  of  her 
latest  dreams  concerning  the  physician.  The 
dream  was  as  follows : 

"I  sit  opposite  you  and  ask  if  you  like  all  the 
patients  as  well  as  you  like  me.  You  answered, 
'Yes J  all,  and  my  four  children,  too/  All  at  once 
you  changed  into  a  woman  and  went  to  sleep.  A 
woman  was  looking  at  the  black  notes." 

The  amative  disposition  of  this  patient  could 
endure  no  rival.  She  made  use  of  the  certainty 
of  her  conquest  in  order  to  support  her  feeling 
of  security.     The  physician  who  gave  her  to  un- 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  257 

derstand  that  he  treated  all  patients  with  the 
same  interest,  and  who  loved  his  children  besides, 
becomes  forthwith  the  point  of  attack  of  her 
striving  for  domination,  as  was  formerly  the 
mother,  the  man  whom  she  married,  as  were  all 
persons  in  her  environment,  domestic  servants, 
trades-people,  teachers,  etc.  Her  self-centered 
nature  did  not  need  to  ''transfer,"  as  she  came  to 
the  treatment  with  rigid  predispositions  and  put 
them  in  play  from  the  first  moment  of  her  meet- 
ing with  the  physician.  Only  the  new  situation 
was  surrounded  with  difficulties  and  obstacles 
W'hich  prevented  the  will  to  domination  through 
love  from  fully  developing.  Naturally  my  wife 
was  left  out  of  the  dream.  Just  this  omission  is 
the  cornerstone  of  the  situation;  my  wife  is  defi- 
nitely set  aside.  Up  to  this  point  the  feminine 
means  extend  and  characterize  the  feminine  line 
to  which  the  patient  holds.  Now  the  masculine 
protest  emerges  more  distinctly.  I  become  un- 
manned, the  reassuring  illusion  of  the  patient, 
namely,  the  notes  as  a  protecting  symbol  of  the 
male  genitals,  asserts  its  right.  She,  herself, 
"takes  care,"  secures  herself  in  order  not  to  sink 
in  her  feeling  of  masculine  ego-consciousness,  to 
suffer  no  defeat. 

That  I  go  to  sleep  in  the  dream,  assigns  to  me 
a  place  similar  to  that  which  her  husband  occu- 
pies.    The  patient  feels  it  as  a  great  neglect  that 


258  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

her  husband,  an  overworked  manufacturer,  often 
goes  to  sleep  before  she  does.  The  unmanning 
of  the  husband  is  the  answer  thereto,  as  well  as 
a  prolonged  insomnia  whose  constructive  signifi- 
cance lies  in  the  fact  that  it  permits  the  patient 
to  operate  against  her  husband.  Now  she  could 
refuse  him  his  right  as  a  husband  and  turned  him, 
at  first  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  later  perma- 
nently, out  of  her  bedroom;  because  he  "snored 
and  disturbed  her  so  much."  Our  patient  would 
have  easily  found  another  argument  if  this  one 
had  not  presented  itself,  and  it  would  be  errone- 
ous to  exclude  the  neurotic  construction  as  a 
cause  because  in  this  case  the  neurotic  happened 
to  be  right.  In  order  to  prove  that  she  is  right 
the  patient  will  often  argue  aptly;  the  neurotic 
stigma  in  fact  consists  in  the  tendency  to  render 
the  superiority  visible  by  all  possible  means. 
Litigious  paranoia  for  example  reveals  this 
mechanism  to  us  with  greater  clearness.  Be- 
sides, the  neurosis  of  our  patient  continues  in  its 
construction  of  assurances.  To  her  insomnia  is 
added,  in  order  to  place  this  on  a  firmer  basis,  a 
sensitiveness  of  hearing,  whose  mechanism  con- 
sists in  an  overcharging  of  the  attention  for  the 
purpose  of  serving  the  neurotic  tendency,  so  that 
we  were  also  able  to  say,  by  this  overcharging, 
the  patient  is  awakened  by  the  slightest  noise  as 
soon  as  she  falls  asleep.     Thus  she  can,  still  awake 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  259 

when  morning  comes,  sleep  far  into  the  day  and 
thus  avoid  the  feminine  tasks  of  the  household, 
in  the  same  manner  as  she  had  escaped  the  moth- 
er's domination  by  stage  fright  and  cramps  in  the 
fingers.  An  auditory  hallucination,  a  sawing 
noise,  constitutes  a  final  security  which  may  be 
pursued  analytically  in  two  directions.  The  one 
interpretation  is  furnished  by  a  warning  souvenir 
which  at  the  same  time  is  an  incentive  to  her  co- 
quetry— once,  when  eight  years  old,  she  over- 
heard an  intimate  scene  at  her  married  sister's, 
she  felt  shut  out,  neglected — she  gave  a  similar 
value  to  her  husband's  "indifference"  when  he  fell 
asleep  before  she  did,  in  order  to  be  able  to  take 
a  sharply  aggressive  attitude  toward  him.  A 
second  interpretation  led  in  another  direction. 
The  noise  recalled  the  sawing  off  of  a  stem  and 
symbolized,  acoustically,^  the  unmanning,  the  de- 
traction from  the  worth  of  the  man.  As  is  also 
so  frequently  the  case  this  symptom  proved  to  be 
(just  as  I  have  maintained  of  the  dream,  of 
symptoms,  and  of  the  neurosis)  a  representative 
instance  of  the  ascension  from  the  feminine  to 
the  masculine  line,  as  a  masculine  protest  against 
a  situation  usually  previously  felt  as  feminine, 

3  One  is  reminded  here  of  the  somatic- jargon  of  which  we  have 
already  spoken.  Thus  the  words,  "schrill"  and  "grell,"  bring  to 
expression  sensorially  in  their  transformed  meaning,  analogies 
which  are  felt  at  one  time  through  the  eye,  at  another,  through 
the  ear. 


260  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

against  an  anticipated  feeling  of  defeat  and  as  a 
symbol  of  the  Kfe  scheme  of  this  neurotic  pa- 
tient. 

This,  and  similar  cases,  explained  to  me  in 
what  manner  suggestibility  became  an  auxiliary 
of  the  tendency  to  attain  security,  either  because 
therefrom  the  patient  gained  in  small  things  the 
conviction  of  her  weakness  in  order  to  provide 
herself  with  proper  protection  at  critical  times, 
or  because  the  patient  yields  with  surprising  plia- 
bility in  order  to  gain  ascendancy  over  the  other 
person.*  The  more  direct  efforts  of  her  tend- 
ency to  domination  stand  so  sharply  in  contrast 
with  this  yielding  that  when  only  superficially 
observed  the  phenomenon  resembles  a  splitting 
of  consciousness.  In  the  same  manner,  vanity, 
pride,  and  self-admiration  will  guide  the  patient 
in  many  cases  to  the  same  goal,  while  she  at 
times,  conducts  herself  with  modesty,  simplicity, 
and  carelessness,  using  these  qualities  as  expedi- 
ents. Usually  externals  and  attitudes  are  care- 
fully studied.  Very  often  fetichism  is  mani- 
fested, whose  essential  and  constructive  founda- 
tion represents  efforts  to  prove  equality  with  men 
in  circuitous  ways,  hence  to  compensate  for  a 
feeling  of  deficiency.     Literature  furnishes  us 

4  The  latter  mechanism  seems  to  be  at  the  root  of  passive  homo- 
sexuality while  both  attitudes  may  be  taken  as  the  structure  of 
masochism,  still  better,  pseudomasochism. 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  261 

with  representations  of  all  these  efforts  in  a  most 
refined  form  in  the  memoirs  of  Baschkirzewa  and 
Helen  Rakowiza.  Analyses  of  a  series  of  cases 
where  the  memories  of  these  remarkable  impres- 
sions from  childhood  had  been  preserved  more 
vividly  than  usual  furnished  me  with  interesting 
verifications  at  a  time  when  I  was  already  far 
advanced  in  my  exposition  of  the  doubts  about 
the  future  sexual  role  on  the  part  of  the  neurotic 
child  and  the  masculine  protest  which  necessarily 
springs  therefrom.  Some  remembered  very  dis- 
tinctly having  been  in  doubt  up  to  the  twelfth  or 
thirteenth  year  whether  they  were  male  or  fe- 
male. It  may  not  be  a  matter  of  chance  that 
these  were  male  patients.  At  times  the  doubt 
emerged  whether  they  were  not  hermaphrodites, 
so  that  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  in  other  cases 
where  the  thought  of  hermaphrodites  was  dis- 
tinctly and  importunately  present  in  the  memory 
of  the  patient  and  was  spontaneously  brought 
forward,  it  is  the  last  impression  of  a  doubt  about 
the  patient's  own  sex.  And  in  literature,  too,  I 
have  frequently  run  across  this  significant  trace 
in  the  histories  of  neurotics  and  psychotics  with- 
out the  significance  of  this  doubt  concerning  the 
sexual  role  being  clear  to  the  writers.  Meschede 
described  an  interesting  case  of  question-compul- 
sion (Fragezwang),  and  Freud  one  of  dementia 
after  Schreber's  biography.     I  disregard  whether 


262  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

or  not  this  interest  of  the  patient  was  explained 
by  illustrations,  or  placards,  in  the  lexicon,  by 
readings  by  spectacles,  by  occurrences,  as  well  as 
the  scientific  interpretation  which  seemed  to  con- 
centrate its  attention  to  the  male  periods,  the 
male  climacteric,  to  the  examination  of  the  male 
or  female  share  in  the  individual,  etc.  For  me, 
the  permanent  impression  which  asserted  itself  in 
an  obvious  emphasis  of  the  relation  and  the  recip- 
rocal relation  of  the  antithesis  male-female,  was 
the  important  factor. 

In  recent  years  since  I  have  hit  upon  these 
fundamental  phenomena  of  the  neurosis,  I  have 
often  asked  myself  if  I,  too,  in  the  course  of  my 
development  from  childhood  was  not  dominated 
by  a  similar  doubt  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
the  question  of  hermaphroditism  only  attracted 
me  at  a  very  late  period  and  from  the  standpoint 
of  a  critic,  and  hence  in  a  secondary  manner. 
Also  my  rejection  of  the  biological  hermaphro- 
ditism as  a  cause  of  the  neurosis  (Flies)  I  would 
use  as  an  argument  against  such  doubts  in  my 
early  youth,  if  I  were  not  familiar  with  the  fact 
that  often  the  negation  is  the  assertion  of  an  old 
interest  which  has  become  unconscious.  But  my 
view  of  life  shows  me  that  I  must  have  become 
master  of  old  childish  contrary  tendencies,  with- 
out the  exaggerated  masculine  protest  having 
been  developed.     Because  I  have  in  life,  as  well 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  263 

as  in  science,  after  a  first  abstract  valuation  of 
the  masculine  principle  over  the  feminine,  re- 
jected the  flood  of  arguments  to  prove  the  orig- 
inal deficiencies  of  women,  with  pertinent  calm- 
ness. 

I  believe,  however,  concerning  the  former 
critics  of  the  "masculine  protest,"  from  the  man- 
ner in  which  they  have  undertaken  the  contest, 
and  from  their  stubborn  failure  to  understand  it, 
that  the  exaggerated  savageness  of  their  attack 
in  a  strictly  scientific  question  is  referable  nearly 
as  much  as  is  their  fear  of  the  concept  "hermaph- 
roditism" to  a  childhood  impression  which  alarm- 
ingly presented  to  them  an  accentuated  effem- 
inacy or  hermaphroditism,  with  which,  however, 
it  is  not  my  intention  to  deter  any  one  from  a 
scientific  criticism. 

Besides,  there  is  no  better  way  of  judging  the 
reaction  of  the  neurotic  psyche  than  from  the 
answers  to  questions  showing  estimation  of  the 
opposite  sex.  It  will  become  apparent  that 
every  stronger  denial  of  the  equality  of  the  sexes, 
every  detraction  or  overvaluation  of  the  opposite 
sex  is  invariably  connected  with  a  neurotic  dis- 
position and  neurotic  traits.  They  are  all  de- 
pendent on  the  neurotic  tendency  to  obtain  se- 
curity, and  all  manifest  distinct  traces  of  the 
masculine  protest  and  are  evidence  of  the  essen- 
tial, more  abstract  adherence  to  a  guiding  fiction. 


26*  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

They  are  one  and  all,  expedients  of  human 
thought  to  enhance  the  feeling  of  personal  worth. 

It  follows  from  the  exposition  of  my  psychol- 
ogy of  the  neuroses  that  children  with  male  as 
well  as  those  with  female  tendencies,  look  for- 
ward with  fear  to  the  lot  of  a  woman,  to  be  sub- 
ject to  a  man,  to  be  deprived  of  virginity,  in- 
jured, to  be  obliged  to  bear  children,  to  play  a 
subordinate  role  in  life,  to  obey,  to  be  backward 
in  knowledge,  in  skill,  in  strength,  wisdom,  to  be 
weak,  to  have  periods,  to  become  a  sacrifice  to 
husband  and  children,  to  become  at  last  an  old 
and  neglected  woman.  How  this  fear  of  the 
future  gives  rise  to  egoistic  traits  of  character  has 
been  described  above.  I  have  described  a  typical 
case  of  a  little  girl  in  the  "Disposition  zur  Neu- 
rose"  (1.  c). 

I  am  able  to  show  in  the  case  of  a  patient  suf- 
fering from  a  gastric  neurosis  a  line  of  conduct 
which  is  regularly  observed  in  the  psychic  devel- 
opment of  neurotic  patients.  This  is  the  antici- 
pation in  thought  and  emotion  of  all  disadvan- 
tages which  could  be  expected  to  occur.  This 
tendency  is  observed  in  early  childhood  when, 
where  there  is  organic  inferiority  and  the  evils 
arising  therefrom,  it  is  of  excessive  growth. 
Very  often  this  feeling  occurs  at  the  time  imme- 
diately preceding  the  falling  asleep  and  it  is  then 
not  remarkable  that  a  dream  fiction  spurs  further 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  265 

this  effort  of  anticipation  in  a  form  to  cause  fear. 
Only  the  dream,  in  resemblance  to  the  hallucina- 
tion, brings  with  it  a  condition  of  feeling,  of  emo- 
tion, which  has  the  significance  as  anticipation  of 
emotion  parallel  to  anticipation  in  thought  in  a 
waking  condition.  The  hallucinatory  excitabil- 
ity is,  as  I  have  already  emphasized  in  the  "Studie 
iiber  JNIindwertigkeit  von  Organ,"  an  extended 
capacity  of  the  brain  which  is  overstrained  in 
compensatory  directions,  serves  the  neurotic 
tendency  to  gain  security  and  owes  its  repre- 
sentative faculty  in  consciousness  to  the  memory 
which  follows  a  certain  tendency  to  the  neurotic, 
cautious  apperception.  The  childish  undevel- 
oped psyche  shows  at  most,  traces  of  tendencies 
toward  hallucinatory  feelings  which  are  to  be  un- 
derstood as  the  fictitious  preparations  for  a  goal, 
as  anticipation  in  time  of  uncertainty. 

Thus  laughing  in  sleep,  or  pleasant  sensations 
in  the  anticipatory  quest  of  organic  satisfaction, 
or  of  security.  The  hallucinatory  excitement  in 
the  neuroses  and  psychoses  always,  and  without 
exception,  serves  the  guiding  fiction  of  the  ideal 
of  personality.  The  significance  of  the  halluci- 
nations of  pain  and  anxiety  for  the  fiction  of 
nervous  diseases  should  also  be  taken  into  ac- 
count. A  further  examination  of  the  mechanism 
of  the  hallucination  teciches  us  unequivocally  that 
it  is  composed  of  tendencies  to  abstraction  and 


266  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

to  anticipation,  and  that  it  gains  significance  as 
a  strengthened  fiction  or  as  a  warning  souvenir 
because  it  acts  as  a  spur  to  the  assurance  of  the 
feehng  of  personal  worth.  That  they  are  con- 
nected with  traces  of  memory  has  no  essential  sig- 
nificance. The  psyche  works  without  exception 
with  the  content  of  consciousness  and  with  sen- 
sations that  are  given  by  experience  and  originate 
in  the  corporal  substratum.  The  significance  of 
the  psyche,  and  especially  of  the  neurotic  psyche, 
lies  in  the  special  choice  of  these  memory  traces 
and  in  their  connection  with  the  neurotic  apper- 
ception which  gives  them  their  trend.  There- 
fore the  nervously  exalted  tendency  to  gain 
security  makes  use  of  a  specially  developed  func- 
tion of  prevision,  of  hallucination,  in  which  ab- 
stractly and  imaginatively  a  scene  unrolls,  an 
anticipated  denouement,  a  foreseen  finale,  with 
eagerness  so  that  the  hallucinated  individual 
builds  the  bridges  to  it,  or  they  have  an  admoni- 
tory quality  warning  them  to  choose  another 
way.  Hallucinations  as  well  as  dreams  are,  like 
other  tentatives  of  the  psyche,  fitted  for  finding 
the  way  which  leads  to  the  maximation  or  preser- 
vation of  the  ego-consciousness.  In  it  are  re- 
flected the  faiths,  the  hopes  or  the  fears  of  the 
patient. 

The  above  patient  was  on  the  eve  of  marriage 
when  her  gastric  neurosis  began.     She  suffered 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  267 

from  pains  in  the  region  of  the  stomach,  belching, 
vomiting,  loss  of  appetite  and  obstipation.  One 
evening,  shortly  before  going  to  sleep  she  heard 
the  word  "Eskadambra"  distinctly.  The  forma- 
tion  of  apparently  meaningless  words  are  often 
among  the  performances  of  neurotics.  Usually 
they  prove  to  be  put  together  according  to  a  plan, 
just  as  children  invent  languages  by  means  of 
which  they  attain  a  feeling  of  superiority.  Pfis- 
ter  was  able  to  make  interpretations  of  the  word 
pictures  which  originated  from  fascination  in  the 
cases  of  those  having  the  "gift  of  tongues." 

In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  given  a  solution 
of  an  hallucinatory  "sawing"  in  the  ears,  in  two 
other  cases  I  found  the  roaring  serving  as  an  ad- 
monitory memory  on  the  roaring  of  the  sea  and 
its  dangers  as  a  sense-picture  of  life,  just  as 
Homer  compares  the  ayopa  to  the  roaring  sea.^ 

In  paranoia  and  dementia  prsecox  the  emotions 
leading  to  the  masculine  protest  disguise  them- 
selves in  the  form  of  hallucinations  and  assure 
the  psychotic  scheme  through  their  acoustic  or 
visual  complement.  Likewise  concerning  the 
above  mentioned  rounding  off  of  a  psychic  move 
into  a  hallucination  of  hearing,  we  may  assimie 

6  On  another  occasion  I  found  roaring  in  the  ears  to  be  a  re- 
minder of  the  tones  of  telegraph  wires.  These  tones  reminded 
him  of  his  isolation  in  childhood  where  alone  he  often  embraced 
the  world  as  does  the  telegraph,  with  his  hopes  for  the  future. 


268  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

that  a  strong  inner  necessity  has  led  to  a  greater 
tension  of  the  tendency  to  gain  security,  for 
which  the  word  "eskadambra"  though  without 
value  or  significance  for  the  patient,  can  repre- 
sent a  signal  or  sign.^  One  is  justified  in  think- 
ing, however,  that  a  thorough  understanding  of 
this  word  would  show  a  meaning  which  would  re- 
veal to  us  the  mental  condition  of  this  girl.  As 
a  rule  it  is  easy  to  obtain  an  understanding  of 
hallucinations  of  this  sort,  at  least  not  more  diffi- 
cult than  for  short  fragments  of  dreams.  Asked 
concerning  the  impression  of  the  new-word  for- 
mation, the  patient  answered,  she  recalled  "al- 
hambra"  by  this  word.  For  this  she  had  evi- 
dently always  had  a  great  interest;  once  it  stood 
proudly,  but  it  was  now  fallen  into  decay,  a  ruin. 
The  beginning  of  the  word  "Esk"  w^as  to  be 
found  in  the  word  "Eskimo,"  in  "E(tru)skan" 
too,  these  letters  are  found.  The  race  of 
"Baskes"  occurred  also  to  her;  in  this  word  the 
greater  part  of  "Esk"  appears.  The  patient 
thus  indicates  the  way  she  has  followed  in  the 
construction  of  the  new  word,  she  has  joined  a 
fragment  of  the  names  of  ancient  tribes  and  the 
name  of  a  ruined  city.  Finally  the  word  "al- 
hambra"  had  for  her  also  only  the  significance 

oAs  one  has  to  assume  also  concerning  the  dream  which  repre- 
sents the  image  of  a  psychic  movement  in  the  state  of  conscious- 
ness. 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  269 

of  a  fragment,  and  hence  we  are  justified  in  as- 
suming the  thought  of  being  broken,  made  small, 
made  short,  would  emerge  in  the  interpretation 
of  the  hallucination.  The  letters  "skad"  belong, 
as  the  patient  easily  discovered,  to  the  word  "kas- 
kade."  She  said  she  was  certain  of  this  because 
she  had  used  the  expression  "ganze  kaskaden"  in 
connection  with  the  period,  the  menstrual  period 
just  passed. 

When  it  is  taken  into  consideration  that  this 
patient  was  about  to  be  married  the  connection 
of  this  construction  of  new  words  with  the  psychic 
condition  can  be  understood  without  anything 
further.  That  she  is  disinclined  to  marry  one 
can  see  from  her  neurosis,  which  formed  a  ready 
obstacle.^  In  the  hallucination  there  is  a  discon- 
nected sketch  of  the  following  train  of  thought: 
the  glory  of  my  virginity  will  be  destroyed — I 
shall  bear  a  new  race — I  will  be  forced  to  sacri- 
fice whole  cascades  of  blood.  When  I  had 
brought  the  interpretation  up  to  this  point,  the 
patient  helped  me  further  by  relating  that  when 
she  was  eight  years  old  she  had  heard  that  a 
woman  of  her  acquaintance  had  died  from  loss 
of  blood  at  the  birth  of  a  child.     Since  then  she 

7  As  has  already  been  mentioned,  the  anticipation  of  marriage 
furnishes  one  of  the  most  potent  moments  for  the  accentuation  of 
a  neurosis  or  for  the  development  of  a  psychosis.  The  contrary 
expressions  of  these  patients,  such,  for  instance,  as  "I  would  very 
much  like  to  be  married,"  always  prove  themselves  to  be  platonic. 


270  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

had  always  been  afraid  of  childbirth.  What 
now  is  the  meaning  of  this  hallucination?  Can  it 
be  defined,  even  remotely,  by  the  word  "wish-ful- 
filhnent"?  The  meaning  of  this  new  formation 
of  words  is  the  anticipatory  interpretation  in  the 
direction  of  a  danger  to  be  feared,  of  being  hu- 
miliated, or  the  fear  of  becoming  a  ruin,  as  she 
had  often  called  her  mother,  of  dying  like  the 
woman  she  remembered  in  her  childhood.  This 
feeling  against  female  functions  (and  the  pa- 
tient indeed  strove  also  consciously  against  mar- 
riage) is  of  older  date,  originated  in  early  child- 
hood, and  was  at  that  time  embodied  in  the  wish 
to  be  ahead,  healthy,  strong  like  her  father.  It 
became  then  a  fictitious  guiding  line  and  was 
filled  with  a  logical  content,  which  was  grouped 
about  a  masculine  ideal  of  personality,  and  was 
filled  also  with  a  fear  in  the  same  direction 
against  a  feminine  role.  Now  I  was  able  also  to 
make  clear  to  the  patient  the  meaning  of  her 
stomach  neurosis.  It  was  a  hallucinatory  excite- 
ment  which  reflected  the  hardships  of  pregnancy, 
warning  the  patient  to  avoid  the  same.  In  the 
waking  condition,  in  the  dream  and  in  halluci- 
nations and  in  the  neurosis  there  was  a  harmony 
of  the  tendency  towards  security — do  not  be  a 
woman,  do  not  submit,  be  a  man! 

This  girl  manifested  in  her  demeanor  rough, 
resolute  traits,  and  could  get  along  with  no  one. 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  271 

Her  ambition  flamed  blazingly  and  made  her  in- 
tolerant. She  required  unconditional  submis- 
sion from  her  fiance  whom  she  treated  very  badly 
and  with  whom  she  often  dissolved  all  relations. 
Once,  however,  when  he  turned  his  attention  to 
another  girl,  she  offered  everything  in  order  to 
hold  him.  One  of  the  day  dreams  of  her  child- 
hood consisted  in  the  phantasy  that  the  whole 
human  race  was  going  to  destruction  and  that 
she  alone  would  remain,  an  analogy  with  the 
myth  of  the  flood  in  which  the  ego-centric,  inimi- 
cal nature  of  the  patient  is  clearly  manifested. 

In  the  cases  of  many  patients  who  show  signs 
of  the  tendency  to  "have  everything"  as  in  the 
case  of  the  girl  just  described,  traits  of  character 
of  an  opposite  nature  are  found.  They  are  often 
of  such  importunate  honorableness,  modesty  and 
contentedness  that  the  peculiar  accentuation  of 
these  qualities  awakens  the  suspicion  of  a  special 
arrangement.  Their  conscience  always  makes 
itself  heard  and  their  feeling  of  being  at  fault 
is  always  ready  to  react  on  the  slightest  occasion.^ 

The  solution  of  this  enigma  which  has  puzzled 
humanity  for  a  long  time,  is  furnished  by  an  un- 
derstanding of  the  craving  for  security  which 
breaks  through  the  direct  aggressive  guiding 
line,  and  which  puts  an  end  to  greed  and  immod- 

sAdler,   "Ueber  neurotische  Disposition,"   1.  c,  and  Fortmiil- 
ler,  1.  c. 


272  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

eration  as  soon  as  the  egoistic  ideal  is  threatened 
by  them.  Conscience  then  constitutes,  so  to 
speak,  an  intermediate  guiding  fiction,  as  does 
also  its  anticipatory  exaltation,  the  abstract  self- 
accusation  of  guilt.  These  are  instances  in  which 
all  actions  planned  and  anticipatory  preparations 
are  changed  around  in  such  a  way  that  they  are 
not  injurious,  that  they  permit  the  feeling  of  per- 
sonal worth  to  be  preserved.  We  perceive  on 
this  point  the  opposition  in  the  original  feeling 
of  inferiority  as  a  compensation  for  the  feeling  of 
uncertainty  which  has  come  to  moral  expression. 
Now  the  neurotic  can  exclude  a  number  of  pos- 
sibilities which  could  degrade  him.  In  other  re- 
lations, also,  the  effect  of  the  craving  for  security 
is  recognizable,  in  morals,  in  religion,  in  super- 
stition, in  stirrings  of  conscience  and  in  the  feel- 
ing of  guilt.  They  all  form  themselves  into  rigid 
formulae  and  principles  such  as  the  uncertain 
neurotic  loves.  And  he  can  prepare  himself  by 
practice  in  small  things,  test  his  moral  strength 
on  mere  nothings  and  especially — principiis 
ohsta! — secures  himself  from  a  moral  fall  which 
he  exaggerates  in  anticipation  by  feeling  the 
moral  defeat  beforehand.  This  last  hallucina- 
tory expedient  resembles  the  security  through 
neurotic  anxiety,  and  indeed  conscientiousness, 
self-accusation,  and  anxiety  often  complement 
each  other,  or  alternate  with  each  other,  in  the 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  273 

neurosis.  The  knowledge  of  this  fact  is  of  great 
importance  to  the  psycho-therapeutist  for  the 
understanding  of  the  connection  between  mastur- 
bation and  neurosis  and  from  which  may  be  com- 
prehended the  significance  as  a  security  of  the 
feeling  of  self -accusation  constructed  from  the 
fact  of  onanism.  If  this  feeling  of  guilt  is 
brought  into  junction  with  the  masturbation  for 
the  purpose  of  working  as  a  brake  against  the 
force  of  sexuality,  both  constitute,  later,  a  base 
of  operation  from  which  the  patient  augments 
his  neurotic  disposition  in  order  to  guard  against 
a  reduction  of  his  ego-consciousness.  As  a  rule, 
both — with  the  assistance  of  anticipated  results, 
as  impotence,  tabes,  paralysis,  loss  of  memory — 
are  used  as  an  excuse  in  order  to  avoid  making 
decisions,  and  always  also  for  deepening  the  fear 
of  the  sexual  partner.  I  have  often  described 
connections  of  this  sort  in  this  and  in  previous 
works.  In  the  neurosis,  honorableness  and  con- 
scientiousness border  on  pedantry,  therefore  we 
will  not  be  surprised  to  find  how  often  these  quali- 
ties draw  their  real  value  from  the  fact  that 
thereby  the  neurotic  is  placed  in  a  position  to 
humiliate  others,  to  come  into  conflict  with  them, 
to  raise  himself  above  others  and  press  them  into 
his  service.  It  is  just  the  neurotic  whose  tend- 
ency to  dominate  contains  the  scheme  "to  possess 
everything"  and  who  not  rarely  preserves  mem- 


274  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ories  of  sins,  who  will  usually  take  care  not  to 
betray  a  secret  which  would  certainly  result  in 
his  humiliation.  He  will  rather  seek  to  preserve 
the  appearance  even  with  great  pains  and  anx- 
iety; will  blush  anxiously  when  he  lifts  his  own 
pocketbook  from  the  floor,  and  will  avoid  being 
alone  in  a  strange  room  in  order  not  to  fall  under 
suspicion  of  theft,  if  something  should  be  missed. 
In  like  manner  I  found  an  obstinate  wish  to  pay 
in  advance,  to  owe  nothing,  in  patients  to  whom 
every  expenditure  seemed  a  reduction  of  their 
ego-consciousness.  They  preferred  undergoing 
an  evil  and  making  an  end  of  it  to  enduring  one 
without  end,  but  had  at  the  same  time  a  feeling 
of  superiority  in  doing  this,  over  the  one  who  re- 
ceived the  money. 

In  the  same  manner  the  fanatic  adherence  to 
truth  in  many  neurotics  proves  itself  to  be,  as  a 
rule,  a  reaction  of  the  weaker  against  the  supe- 
rior power  (in  this  connection  the  original  pic- 
ture of  the  same  may  be  called,  the  ''enfant  ter- 
rible"), 

I  learned  from  the  previous  history  of  a  cata- 
tonic that  he  was  oppressed  and  humiliated  by 
his  wife.  One  night  he  broke  out  in  sobs  and 
told  her  that  he  had  deceived  her  by  an  affair 
with  a  servant  girl.  His  masculine  protest  made 
use  of  this  expedient,  adultery,  in  order  to  con- 
nect with  it  an  open  confession.     Again,  in  the 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  275 

form  of  the  neurotic  conjunction  with  which  we 
are  akeady  acquainted,  it  became  apparent  that 
the  wife  not  only  had  the  stronger  will,  but  had, 
also,  the  command  of  the  pocket-book.  The  pa- 
tient, himself  a  weak  man,  was  obliged  to  live 
from  her  revenues,  something  that  the  wife  and 
her  family  made  the  source  of  much  unpleasant- 
ness, though  they  knew  all  about  it  beforehand. 
In  order  to  protect  himself  from  the  superiority 
of  his  wife  and  not  to  submit  entirely  to  her  in- 
fluence, he,  already  engaged  in  conflict  over  the 
male  domination,  arrived  at  an  arrangement  of 
a  psychic  impotence.  The  wife,  on  the  other 
hand,  overcame  this  impotence  and  humiliated 
the  husband  openly.  His  flirtation  with  the 
nurse  girl  was  the  beginning  of  his  revenge. 
This  could  only  be  effective  in  a  way  to  elevate 
him  if  he  confessed  his  adultery  in  a  manly  way ; 
therefore  he  had  recourse  to  the  love  of  truth, 
which  had  already  served  him  as  a  vehicle  for  all 
sorts  of  rascality.  The  fact  that  he  confessed  his 
fault  with  tears  was  in  keeping  with  his  cowardice 
before  a  decision,  but  on  the  other  hand,  made  it 
easier  for  him  to  communicate  the  painful  intelli- 
gence to  his  wife.  The  further  course  turned  out 
against  the  masculine  triumph  of  the  psychic 
hermaphrodite;  the  wife  went  further  in  her  ag- 
gression and  complained  to  her  relatives  who  in 
turn  reproached  him  in  the  most  severe  manner. 


276  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Now  he  fell  into  an  apathy  with  an  augmented 
craving  for  security,  wished  to  undo  his  trans- 
gression as  it  had  not  assisted  him  to  the  mascu- 
line triumph  and  found  the  solution  in  a  fiction 
of  a  purifying  miracle  which  God  had  wrought 
in  him.  He  was  again  on  the  heights,  his  pre- 
destination phantasy  broke  out,  he  stood  in  com- 
munication with  God,  received  orders  and  com- 
mands from  Him,  and  built  up  a  psychotic  sys- 
tem in  which  he  wandered  on  the  earth  as  a 
prophet.  The  masturbation,  too,  which  he  prac- 
ticed openly,  he  designated  as  a  miracle,  in  order 
thus  to  escape  the  feeling  of  humiliation.  Stere- 
otypies were  manifested,  among  other  ways,  bj'' 
an  occasional  upright  position  of  the  body  and 
by  holding  the  head  high,  a  motion  which  I  was 
able  to  interpret  as  symbolic,  as  a  phantasy  of 
the  erection  of  the  male  organ. 

*'To  tell  some  one  a  bitter  truth — "  This  ex- 
pression contains  the  kernel  for  the  comprehen- 
sion of  the  case  just  described.  The  neurotic 
often  makes  use  of  the  truth  in  order  to  cause 
pain  to  others.  One  never  hears  agreeable  truths 
from  neurotic  patients  without  a  reaction  imme- 
diately becoming  visible,  usually  in  the  form  of 
an  aggravation  of  the  suffering.  To  every  emo- 
tion of  love,  which  is  regarded  as  feminine,  as  a 
submission,  there  follows  an  emotion  of  hate,  as 
masculine  protest,  the  latter  in  the  garments  of 


NEUROTIC  PRINXIPLES  277 

truth — honor  bright!  Also  in  this  case  of  de- 
mentia praecox  we  find  a  stage  where  the  doubt 
of  the  neurotic  concerning  his  own  mascuhnity 
is  bridged  over  by  means  of  expedients  and  by  a 
tightening  of  the  guiding  fiction  where  the  com- 
pensatory craving  for  security  gives  the  impulse 
to  take  a  guiding  symbol  verbally  and  to  con- 
struct the  fiction  (as  if  the  neurotic  were  a 
teacher,  the  Emperor,  Savior).  Other  traits, 
such  as  moodiness  and  unsociability,  are  likewise 
to  be  recognized  as  neurotic  anticipatory  prepa- 
rations, as  always  fitted  to  annihilate  the  supe- 
riority of  others  and  to  prevent  them  from  carry- 
ing out  their  will. 

The  neurotic  individual  is  the  typical  kill- joy 
and  peace  destroyer.  He  is  misled  by  his  meg- 
alomaniac ideal  in  conditions  of  greatest  uncer- 
tainty and  is  always  busy  trying  to  hypostasize 
and  deify  his  own  guiding  line,  and  to  cross  those 
of  others.  These  traits  are  also  capable  of  a 
more  extended  application.  The  neurotic  re- 
gards his  inability  to  get  along  with  others,  his 
disturbing  attacks,  as  proofs  that  others  wish  to 
injure  him,  and  erects,  as  a  protection,  the  wall 
of  his  principles  within  which  his  spirit  of  mas- 
tery is  able  to  develop.  Here  emerge  tendencies 
such  as  the  desire  to  be  alone,  sometimes  the  de- 
sire to  be  buried ;  or  pictures,  such  as  being  buried 
alive  or  concealed  in  the  mother's  body  (Gruner) . 


278  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

At  times  I  have  discovered  as  a  fulfillment  of  this 
wish  to  dominate  in  solitude,  the  habit  of  remain- 
ing a  long  time  on  the  stool.  Wholly  in  the 
same  direction,  i.  e.,  of  gaining  the  upper  hand, 
the  neurotic  carries  out  his  exaggerated  yielding 
and  adaptability,  but  the  patient  is  in  this  always 
on  the  watch,  although  he  tries,  too,  in  this  way 
to  captivate  those  who  are  stronger,  to  deviate 
toward  the  more  manly  line  and  to  enjoy  his  open 
triumph. 

The  inclination  to  daintiness  furnishes  the  neu- 
rotic with  the  same  readiness  for  conflict.  By 
this  means  he  can  decry  everything,  secure  him- 
self against  decisions  and  lay  claim  to  his  pre- 
rogative. He  will  be  finicky  in  such  instances  as 
harmonize  best  with  his  tendencies  and  where  he 
can  gain  the  most  advantages.  In  eating,  in  the 
choice  of  friends,  in  amorous  relations,  he  secures 
to  himself  thereby  a  troublesome  superiority. 
Every  one  is  obliged  to  make  allowances  for  him 
because  he  is  sick,  nervous.  This  trait  of  char- 
acter rises  to  great  performances  as  soon  as  the 
fear  of  the  sexual  partner,  of  marriage,  makes 
use  of  it.  No  girl,  no  man,  then  amounts  to  any- 
thing, and  a  twisted  ideal  furnishes  the  neurotic 
with  a  point  of  support  for  the  disparagement 
of  every  one.  At  other  times  and  in  other  rela- 
tions, this  trait  manifests  itself  as  an  arrange- 
ment, as  the  foresight  of  an  individual  who  has 


NEUROTIC  PRINCIPLES  279 

not  as  yet  conquered  the  weak  point  of  his  feel- 
ing of  inferiority.  He  can  also  be  moderate 
"when  the  wind  blows  from  the  northwest,"  when 
his  will  to  power  requires  it.  One  of  the  univer- 
sal methods  of  quieting  children  when  they  show 
discontent  is  by  comforting  them  with  a  prospect 
of  the  future,  when  they  will  be  big,  grown  up. 
One  often  hears  children  themselves  sav,  "When 
I  am  grown  up,  I  will  ..."  The  problem  of 
growth  engages  the  attention  of  children  to  an 
extraordinary  extent  and  in  the  course  of  their 
development  they  are  constantly  reminded  of  it. 
It  is  thus  in  regard  to  the  size  of  his  body,  the 
growth  of  his  hair,  of  the  teeth,  and  as  soon  as  he 
comes  to  speculations  concerning  the  sexual  or- 
gans by  the  growth  of  the  pubes  and  the  genital 
organs.  The  entrance  of  the  child  upon  his  mas- 
culine role,  of  which  we  have  often  spoken,  re- 
quires a  distinct  largeness  of  the  person  of  the 
individual  and  of  the  parts  of  his  body.  Where 
this  is  denied  him — and  here  we  encounter  again 
the  basis  of  somatic  inferiority,  especially  the 
causal  rickets  (thymus  anomalies?),  anomalies 
of  the  thyroid,  of  the  sperm  glands,  hypophysis, 
etc. — the  child  has  recourse  on  account  of  its  de- 
sire for  masculine  value  to  the  positing  of  the 
masculine  protest.  Then  it  acquires  the  height- 
ened impulse  to  covetousness,  envy,  bragging, 
greed,  activity,  together  with  the  acute  feeling  of 


280  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

contrast  and  begins  to  measure  himself  con- 
stantly with  others,  especially  with  the  persons  of 
importance  in  his  environment,  and  finally  with 
the  heroes  from  tales  and  stories.  Thus  the  in- 
dividual comes  to  a  wishful  contemplation  of  the 
future  and  the  phantasy  incited  by  the  craving 
for  security  fills  all  wishes. 


i 

I 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DEROGATORY  TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTH- 
ERS; OBSTINACY  AND  WILDNESS;  THE  SEXUAL 
RELATIONS  OF  NEUROTICS  AS  A  MEANS  OF 
COMPARISON ;  SYMBOLIC  EMASCULATION ; 
FEELING  OF  BEING  BELITTLED;  EQUALITY  TO 
MAN  AS  A  LIFE-PLAN ;  SIMULATION  AND  NEU- 
ROSIS; SUBSTITUTE  FOR  MASCULINITY;  IMPA- 
TIENCE; discontent;  inaccessibility 

The  compulsive  craving  of  the  neurotic  to  fill 
his  egoistic  ideal  with  the  overvalued  masculine 
traits  impels  him,  especially  because  of  the  ob- 
stacles of  reality,  to  a  change  in  the  formula  of 
his  guiding  line,  so  that  he  attempts  to  attain  the 
goal  which  he  values  as  equal  to  the  masculine 
goal  by  means  of  circuitous  paths.  What  drives 
him  to  a  psychosis  is  his  longing  to  realize  an 
unattainable  ideal.  Should  he  suffer  a  defeat 
in  the  main  line  of  his  masculine  protest,  or 
should  he  even  anticipate  such  a  defeat,  he  seeks 
a  substitute  which  he  temporarily  considers  as  of 
equal  value  through  an  arrangement  of  intensi- 
fied reassuring  expedients.  At  this  point  there 
begins  as  a  rule  that  process  of  psychic  transfor- 

281 


282  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

mation  which  we  designate  as  neurosis,  in  so  far 
as  the  guiding  fiction  does  not  lead  to  a  violation 
of  reality,  the  patient  only  feeling  it  as  a  disturb- 
ing element,  as  is  the  case  in  neurasthenia,  hypo- 
chondriasis, anxiety  and  compulsion  neuroses  and 
in  hysteria.  In  the  psychosis  the  guiding  mascu- 
line fiction  appears  disguised  in  pictures  and 
symbols  of  infantile  origin.  The  patient  then 
conducts  himself  no  longer  as  if  he  wished  to  be 
masculine,  above,  and  as  if  he  sought  to  attain 
this  end  by  every  possible  means,  but  through  the 
medium  of  anticipation  as  though  he  already  had 
attained  all  these  ends  and  only  indicates  at  first, 
incidentally  and  in  the  manner  of  a  foundation 
(depression,  persecutory  and  self -accusatory 
ideas,  ideas  of  poverty),  that  he  is  underneath, 
unmanly,  feminine. 

For  the  sake  of  clarity,  I  will  now  proceed  to 
the  description  of  some  neurotic  character  traits 
which  tend  in  a  direct  line  to  the  masculine  ego- 
tistic ideal,  or  are  so  closely  connected  therewith 
that  they  force  themselves  upon  the  understand- 
ing as  only  slight  deviations  of  the  masculine  pro- 
test. They  have  been  generally  regarded  as  ac- 
tive, masculine  traits  and  the  neurotic  can  thus 
appeal  to  this  general  opinion  in  which  there  is 
agreement.  But  we  have  already  endeavored  to 
show  in  previous  chapters  that  in  the  construction 
of  masculine  traits  the  choice  of  the  fictitious  goal 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     283 

is  dependent  upon  and  guided  only  within  cir- 
cumscribed limits  by  the  conscious  understanding 
of  the  neurotic  or  even  of  the  critical  observer. 
He  also  makes  use  of  such  guiding  lines  which  to 
general  logic  do  not  always  seem  masculine,  or  at 
least  only  in  part  so,  such  for  example  as  co- 
quetry, deception,  etc.  As  the  direct  traits  of 
character  in  line  with  the  masculine  protest  may 
be  emphasized,  the  frequently  displayed  tendency 
to  be  a  man  through  and  through,  courageous, 
ready  for  attack,  open,  hard-hearted,  cruel,  to  ex- 
cel every  one  in  strength,  influence,  power,  wis- 
dom, etc.  When  the  fundamental  feeling  of  in- 
feriority demands  stronger  reassuring  compensa- 
tions— because  of  an  expected  defeat  or  the  sus- 
picion of  one,  this  compensation  ensues  by  a 
strengthening  of  the  readiness  for  conflict  which 
now  strives  toward  the  masculine  feeling  of  su- 
periority, often  by  circuitous  and  more  abstract 
ways,  revealing  simultaneous  and  often  contra- 
dictory traits — after  the  manner  of  tricks  and 
artifices.  It  is  then  that  the  neurotic  may  mani- 
fest pliancy  instead  of  obstinacy,  or  side  by  side 
with  it,  or  as  the  occasion  may  require  it,  traits  of 
exorbitant  arrogance  and  modesty,  roughness 
and  mildness,  courage  and  cowardice,  lust  for 
power  and  submissiveness,  masculinity  and  fem- 
ininity, all  of  which  are  used  to  gain  security  from 
defeat  or  in  order  to  permit  him  by  circuitous 


281  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ways  to  enhance  his  own  egoistic  ideal  or  dispar- 
age that  of  others.  That  it  is  possible  to  con- 
quer by  weakness,  submissiveness  and  modesty  is 
shown  in  the  example  of  women  and  by  many  ex- 
amples in  the  history  of  the  world. 

The  dominancy  of  the  self-created  deities,  of 
the  guiding  fiction  is  always  easily  discernible  and 
is  revealed  in  the  psychosis  with  unmistakable 
clarity.  I  will  endeavor  to  show  by  means  of  a 
dream  of  a  22-year-old  girl  who  was  suffering 
from  enuresis  nocturna  and  in  the  daytime  from 
frequent  outbreaks  of  rage  and  ill-humor,  who 
could  get  along  with  no  one  but  me,  and  who 
often  had  suicidal  ideas,  that  all  of  these  phe- 
nomena, together  with  other  traits  of  lust  for 
power,  of  obstinacy  or  of  anxiety  were  under  the 
guidance  of  the  masculine  protest,  and  that  this 
protest  was  dependent  in  turn  upon  a  constitu- 
tional inferiority  of  the  urinary  organ,  which  in 
combination  with  ugliness  and  mental  retardation 
gave  the  impulse  to  the  compensatory  exhibition 
of  an  exaggerated  masculine  guiding  line.  In 
order  to  make  the  case  brief  and  comprehens- 
ible, I  preface  the  remark  that  the  patient  had 
applied  the  realities  of  her  childhood  to  a  reas- 
suring neurosis,  had  constructed  the  enuresis  as 
an  ever-ready  expedient  and  always  had  recourse 
to  this  symptom  when  her  egoistic  feeling  suf- 
fered a  humiliation.     In  this  case,  too,  there  was 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     285 

manifested  the  colossal  power  of  the  tendency  to 
disparagement  in  the  arrangement  of  the  seizm'es 
which  drov^e  the  mother  to  a  powerless  despair, 
while  at  the  same  time  the  patient  disparaged  her 
mother  in  the  usual  form  of  an  allusion  by  ex- 
cusing herself  from  all  fault  and  throwing  the 
blame  on  another.  The  following  dream  shows 
this  in  a  specially  clear  manner. 

''My  mother  showed  my  friend  the  dirty  cover 
of  the  bed.  We  began  to  quarrel.  I  say  the 
cover  is  yours  and  begin  to  cry  bitterly.  I  awake 
flooded  in  tears/' 

A  short  time  before  she  related  to  me  that  she 
often  awoke  weeping  from  sleep  without  know- 
ing the  cause  of  her  weeping.  From  the  connec- 
tion of  the  genesis  of  the  disease  which  was  ap- 
parent even  at  that  time  the  weeping  was  of  sig- 
nificance in  relation  to  the  mother,  it  represented 
one  of  the  most  usual  childish  procedures  for 
diminishing  the  mother's  superiority.  After  the 
communication  of  the  dream  she  remarked,  "You 
will  certainly  believe  that  you  are  right  in  your 
opinion  concerning  my  weeping."  One  hears 
such  remarks  during  a  psychotherapeutic  treat- 
ment as  a  regular  thing,  and  must  not  overlook 
the  concealed  criticism  therein  as  a  device  of  the 
tendency  to  disparage,  which  is  directed  against 
everybody.     The   moderate   expression   of   the 


286  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

same  on  this  occasion  led  me  to  suspect  that  the 
cme  of  the  neurosis  was  in  progress,  as  the  more 
hvely  reactions  were  absent.  Formerly  under 
similar  circumstances  she  would  have  asserted 
sharply  and  passionately  that  I  was  wrong,  or  she 
would  have  omitted  to  mention  or  would  have  for- 
gotten those  dreams  which  confirmed  my  view.  I 
was  further  confirmed  in  my  assumption  by  the 
information  that  the  patient  after  the  dream  im- 
mediately took  off  the  slightly  soiled  bed  linen  and 
washed  it  in  secret  which  was  never  the  case  be- 
fore because  the  sight  of  the  soiled  linen  was  in- 
tended for  her  mother. 

For  the  explanation  of  the  dream  she  related 
the  following.  She  was  firmly  convinced  that 
her  mother  told  all  her  acquaintances  about  her 
enuresis.  All  her  relatives  seemed  to  know  of 
her  weakness.  Once  an  uncle,  obviously  in  order 
to  comfort  her,  had  informed  her  that  both  he  and 
another  brother  had  for  a  long  time  been  in  the 
habit  of  wetting  the  bed.  In  her  dreams  she  re- 
proached, her  mother,  telling  her,  "The  weakness 
is  in  your  family,  you  are  to  blame  if  I  soil  the 
bedj  the  soiled  cover  is  yours/' 

She  related  further  that  in  changing  she  often 
took  a  bed-slip  instead  of  a  cover;  the  one  was 
closed,  the  other  open ;  adding,  "And  it  is  easy  to 
mistake  them  in  the  closet." 

Behind  this  thought  lies  the  problem  of  open 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     287 

and  shut  which  is  clearly  recognizable  as  an  ex- 
pression for  the  oppositeness  of  the  sexes.  She 
blames  her  mother  for  the  disease,  but  at  the  same 
time  casts,  so  to  speak,  a  furtive  glance  at  its 
source  and  spring,  that  is,  the  femininity  for 
which  she  blames  her  mother  and  betravs  to  us  in 
the  masculine  protest  of  her  dreams  how  slightly 
she  estimates  the  difference  between  man  and 
woman.  Similarly  George  Sand  declared  that 
there  was  only  one  sex.  The  quarreling  and 
weeping  is  the  most  important  attitude  of  her 
aggression  against  her  mother  whose  superiority 
she  tried  to  destroy  in  this  way  as  well  as  by  her 
adherence  to  the  enuresis.  The  fact  that  at  the 
present  time  she  operates  against  men  by  her 
enuritic  device  and  thereby  avoids  marriage  and 
"the  tyranny  of  man,"  is  a  natural  result  to  be 
inferred  from  other  perspectives  of  her  neurotic 
psyche. 

An  example  of  the  change  of  formula  of  the 
guilding  masculine  fiction  which  originally  was 
"I  will  be  a  man,"  in  the  above  described  stage 
of  the  treatment  was,  "I  will  be  superior  to  my 
mother  hke  a  man,"  and  later  on  was  expressed 
in  the  words,  "I  will  humiliate  my  mother  by 
feminine  means."  In  a  dream,  therefore,  in  a 
tentative,  anticipatory  test,  this  guiding  line  as  we 
have  maintained  it  to  be  comes  to  stronger  ex- 
pression.    The  dream  is  as  follows : 


288  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

''/  lie  in  a  burning  bed.  All  weep  about  me. 
I  laugh  aloud/* 

A  discussion  of  free  love  had  preceded  the 
dream.  The  burning  bed,  according  to  the  pa- 
tient's interpretation  represented  amorous  pleas- 
ure. We  translate  according  to  our  understand- 
ing of  the  dream.  "How  would  it  be  if  I  should 
embrace  free  love?  Then  my  mother  would  be 
humiliated  but  I  would  laugh  at  her,  would  be 
superior  to  her."  Attention  must  also  be  called 
to  the  expression  "burning,"  which  arises  so  fre- 
quently in  psychic  constructions  which  spring 
from  the  urinary  functions  in  antithesis  to  water 
(enuresis).  ^ 

The  laughing  in  this  dream  is  equivalent  to  the 
weeping  in  the  first  dream.  Both  show  the  ag- 
gressive tendency  which  seeks  the  mother's  de- 
feat. In  this  case,  too,  the  untenability  of  the 
assumption  of  a  splitting  of  personality  is  readily 
perceivable.  Just  as  erroneous  would  be  the  as- 
sumption of  a  real  sexual  wish.  This  means 
would  only  serve  the  purpose  of  the  patient  if  the 
mother  were  set  back  and  she  could  play  the  part 
of  man  in  regard  to  her. 

The  guiding  fiction  of  the  equality  to  man 
comes  to  expression  in  some  way  or  other  in  all 

1  Adler,  "Stiidie,"  1.  c,  Addendum.  Freud  has  already  touched 
upon  the  relationship  between  fire  and  water  in  the  dream,  and  the 
allegorical  representation  based  on  this. 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     289 

women  and  girls.  As  I  was  able  to  show  in  the 
foregoing  case,  it  is  the  change  of  formula  neces- 
sitated by  reality  which  disguises  the  masculine 
protest.  Hence  it  is  essential  in  the  analysis  of 
neurotic  female  patients  to  discover  at  what  point 
they  protest  against  their  femininity.  This 
point  can  always  be  found,  for  the  pressure  to- 
ward the  maximation  of  the  ego-consciousness 
necessitates  the  construction  of  a  reassuring  guid- 
ing line  which  is  erected  as  an  antithesis  to  the  idea 
"feminine."  Cultural  or  uncultural  ideas  of 
emancipation,  of  militancy  directed  against  men 
and  their  privileges  are  usually  found  in  normal 
women  and  girls.  They  seek  to  diminish  the  dis- 
tance as  much  as  possible  in  dress,  attitude,  cus- 
toms, laws,  views  of  life.  The  masculine  protest 
of  neurotics  is  exaggerated  in  all  these  directions. 
In  dress  glaring  but  at  the  same  time  mannish 
fashions  are  affected,  as  the  lengthening  of  single 
parts  of  dress  and  the  wearing  of  strong  high 
shoes.  Or  they  avoid  all  fashions  in  dress  which 
are  distinctly  feminine.  Often  there  is  a  lively 
fight  against  the  corset,  a  fight  directed  against 
the  confinement,  but  which  can  also  serve  other 
purposes  and  is  often  brought  into  play  to  avoid 
seeing  company  and  is  most  usually  directed 
against  the  husband.  The  attitude  and  habits  of 
neurotic  women  are  often  so  masculine  that  it  is 
noticeable  from  the  first  moment.     Crossed  legs 


290  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

and  arms,  and  at  times  only  indications  which 
betray  this  tendency,  as  well  as  the  tendency  to 
take  the  left  side  as  a  man  does  or  to  allow  no  one 
to  stand  in  front  of  them,  etc.,  as  in  the  dream. 
In  the  neurotic's  view  of  life  the  usual  ideal  over- 
estimation  of  the  masculine  qualities  is  compen- 
sated for  in  a  practical  manner  by  the  disparage- 
ment of  men.  In  sexual  relations  anasthesia  is 
the  rule.  Masculine  variants,  or  those  which  dis- 
parage man  are  given  preference. 

The  neurotic  psyche  of  men  offers  the  same 
characteristics.  It  derives  its  artifices  from  an 
imaginary  consciousness  of  femininity  in  order  to 
arrive  at  a  feeling  of  complete  manliness.  One 
of  my  patients  who  was  suffering  from  asthma 
nervosum  presented  a  very  clear  example  of  this 
dynamic.  He  had  been  a  weak  child  and  had 
suffered  from  the  exudative  diathesis,  a  relation 
to  which  Striimpell  has  called  attention.  His 
early  catarrh  permitted  him  already  in  childhood 
to  press  his  mother  into  his  service.  She  took  him 
to  her,  cared  for  him  in  her  bedroom  and  yielded 
to  all  his  wishes.  He  was  early  placed  under  the 
care  of  a  strict  governess  of  whom  he  could  not 
get  the  better,  notwithstanding  his  rage  and  in- 
tractibility.  He  felt  weak  before  her  and  thus 
became  acquainted  with  childish  deceptions  by 
means  of  which  he  was  able  to  escape  the  gover- 
ness, that  is,  he  simulated  and  exaggerated  the 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     291 

catarrhal  affection  by  an  arrangement  of  cough- 
ing and  excitation  of  the  bronchial  tubes  and 
larynx  and  by  asthmatic  phenomena  which  he 
produced  after  the  manner  of  straining  at  diffi- 
cult defecation,  by  tension  of  the  abdomen  and 
closing  of  the  anus.  He  soon  learned  to  know 
that  these  phenomena  gained  him  a  place  in  his 
mother's  room,  and  in  the  course  of  years  pro- 
duced an  asthmatic  device  which  he  was  to  set  un- 
consciously into  activity  whenever  he  felt  com- 
pelled on  account  of  his  overtense  fictitious  guid- 
ing goal  to  rise  to  the  position  of  the  lord  of  the 
house,  and  incidentally,  of  the  governess.  He 
soon  gained  the  victory  so  that  the  governess  was 
forbidden  to  treat  him  severely  or  to  beat  him. 

We  see  how  his  egotistic  ideal  had  at  its  dis- 
posal from  now  on  a  neurotic  weapon  which 
placed  him  in  a  position  to  escape  a  defeat  or  to 
prevent  the  emergence  of  the  feeling  of  his 
original  inferiority  in  a  circuitous  way,  that  is,  no 
longer  by  obstinacy,  rage,  courage,  manliness,  but 
that  he  sought  to  get  ahead  by  a  sort  of  treachery, 
craft,  unmanly  conduct,  cowardice,  a  leaning  on 
the  mother.  This  subterfuge,  hypostasized  and 
elaborated  to  an  unconsciously  working  mechan- 
ism, furnished  him  the  necessary  security  for  his 
whole  life.  His  neurotic  symptom  which  was 
constantly  defended  and  laid  claim  to  by  further 
auxiliary  lines  of  his  trait  of  character,  i.  e.  "to 


292  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

possess  everything"  by  his  lust  for  power,  by  his 
obstinacy  and  disputatiousness,  and  at  the  same 
time  by  his  cowardice,  fear  of  new  undertakings, 
fear  of  men  and  women  and  by  the  tendency  to 
disparagement  which  alwaj'^s  evolves  from  these 
traits  and  which  played  such  an  important  role  in 
his  aggi'essive  devices  furnished  him  a  new  organ, 
a  means  of  making  himself  important  in  a  special 
way,  to  dominate  his  world,  inasmuch  as  he  could 
always  demand  the  protection  of  his  mother.  He 
felt  safer  with  his  mother  than  with  his  wife,  and 
thus  he  was  driven  by  necessity  to  fall  in  love  with 
his  mother,  a  love  which  upon  closer  analysis 
proved  to  be  a  sort  of  tyranny.  Pregnancy 
phantasies  reflected  for  hun  the  feelings  of  humil- 
iation connected  with  a  feminine  role  and  alter- 
nated with  thoughts  about  castration  and  with 
phantasies  about  being  a  woman.  His  impulse 
to  masturbation  revealed  the  attempt  to  emanci- 
pate himself  victoriously  from  women,  to  avoid  a 
defeat,  to  conduct  himself  in  a  manly  fashion,  and 
was  continued  in  similarly  directed  phantasies  of 
greatness,  both  of  which  were  forms  of  expression 
of  his  masculine  protest.  The  imagined  small- 
ness  of  his  genital  organs,  a  thought  which  made 
a  marked  impression  upon  him,  served  him  as  a 
figure  and  perceptional  form  for  his  inferiority 
and  feminine  nature.  From  his  childhood  he 
sought  to  attribute  all  his  unsuccessful  efforts  and 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     293 

defeats  to  his  small  penis,  apperceived  and 
grouped  his  experiences  in  this  direction  and  ac- 
cording to  related  antithetical  forms  of  apper- 
ception of  "manlj'^-womanly."  The  small  penis 
represented  to  him  the  figurative  marginal  con- 
cept between  masculinity  and  femininity  and  was 
manifestly  constructed  as  was  the  attitude  of  the 
patient  on  the  idea  of  a  corporal  and  psychic  her- 
maphroditism and  its  tragedy.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  in  the  psycho-analysis  of  these  cases  with  the 
male-female  manner  of  apperception  which  be- 
longs to  the  foundation  of  the  neurotic  psyche, 
one  hits  only  upon  sexual  relations.  They  are 
all  to  be  understood  as  a  modus  dicendi,  as  a  jar- 
gon, and  figurative  modes  of  expression  and  are 
to  be  resolved  into  forms,  whereby  strength,  vic- 
tory, triumph  come  to  expression  in  male  sexual 
symbols,  defeat  in  female  and  the  neurotic  arti- 
fices in  both  together,  usually  also  in  a  perverse 
or  hermaphroditic  symbolism. 

It  was  easy  to  detect  in  our  patient  that  besides 
the  sexual  mode  of  expression  he  had  another 
fashion  of  apperception  based  upon  the  antitheti- 
cal formula  of  inspiration-expiration  which  had 
been  set  in  operation  by  the  inferiority  of  his 
respiratory  organ  inclusive  of  the  nose.  Even 
the  speech  used  for  our  mutual  understanding 
likewise  made  use  of  such  formulae  and  a  sigh  of 
relief  from  an  oppressed  breast  could  very  well 


294.  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

be  clothed  in  the  figure  of  "having  air  again." 
The  patient  was  also  able  to  represent,  in  panto- 
mime form,  memories  of  his  boyhood  race,  a  wild 
race  to  get  to  first  place,  the  desire  to  be  the  first 
at  the  goal  by  means  of  breathless  efforts.  In  a 
dream  during  the  latter  part  of  the  treatment  he 
made  use  of  his  ability  to  whistle  (which  is  to  be 
understood  figuratively)  in  order  to  accentuate 
his  manliness  by  respiration.  The  dream  was  as 
follows : 

''It  seemed  to  me  that  four  people  were  whist- 
ling. I  remark  that  I  can  do  it  just  as  well  as 
they." 

A  short  time  before  he  had  begun  a  relation 
with  the  governess  in  the  family  of  his  married 
brother  and  had  asked  her  the  question  if  his 
brother  often  visited  his  wife  at  night.  The  girl 
answered  in  the  negative.  Being  able  to  whistle 
is  the  ideal  of  all  small  boys  and  some  girls  make 
efforts  to  acquire  this  manly  attitude.  In  his 
dream  he  made  a  tentative  comparison  to  see  if  he 
was  the  equal  of  his  male  relatives  and  thus  ar- 
rived from  this  line,  which  originated  in  his  feel- 
ing of  effeminacy,  to  the  masculine  protest.  He 
is  the  equal  of  all  four. 

In  this  case  too  I  found  my  observation  con- 
firmed that  the  neurotic  feels  his  sexual  libido, 
and  manifests  the  same  only  in  accordance  with 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     295 

the  manner  and  degree  that  is  required  by  his 
fictive  goal,  so  that  every  psychological  opinion 
which  perceives  in  the  libido  a  constitutionally  ac- 
quired factor,  in  its  alterations  and  fortunes  the 
essence  of  the  neurosis,  becomes  untenable.  It  is 
especially  easy  to  arrange  sexual  and  excitations 
and  they  are  always  in  some  waj?^  subordinated 
to  the  masculine  protest.  The  identification  of 
masculinity  with  sexuality  takes  place  in  the  neu- 
rosis by  means  of  abstraction,  symbolization  and 
a  figurative  somatic- jargon,  and  it  is  this  false 
artifice  of  the  neurotic  which  fills  his  thought  con- 
tent with  sexual  pictures. 

The  contentiousness  and  hidden  querulousness 
which  stand  in  the  closest  relation  to  the  tendency 
to  disparagement  present  difficult  tactical  and 
pedagogic  problems  to  the  psychotherapeutist. 
They  betray  in  every  case  the  weak  point,  the 
feeling  of  inferiority  of  the  patient  which  drives 
him  to  compensation.  It  is  easy  to  uncover  this 
neurotic  aggressiveness  by  a  very  simple  mode  of 
approach.  Let  it  be  imagined  that  the  neurotic 
feels  that  he  has  entirely  lost  his  mascuhnity  and 
feels  himself  humiliated  and  now  let  it  be  noted 
through  what  artifice  he  seeks  to  carry  out  the' 
completion  of  his  character  or  his  overcompensa- 
tion. One  will  then  find  a  number  of  prepara- 
tory devices,  characteristics,  syndromes  and  sym- 
toms  which  have  for  their  aim  the  representation 


296  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  an  ideal  organ,  but  one  must  however  be  pre- 
pared to  view  this  as  a  riddle,  which  requires  so- 
lution. For  this  "ideal  organ,"  namely — the 
neurosis  or  psychosis,  is  of  masculine  origin  and 
has  for  its  purpose  the  prevention  of  a  lowering 
of  the  patient's  ego-consciousness,  and  to  bring 
him  closer  to  his  masculine  goal.  Cruel  reality, 
however,  impedes  the  development  of  this  fiction 
to  such  an  extent  that  the  most  peculiar  circuitous 
ways  must  be  resorted  to  so  that  partial  and  ap- 
parent results  are  striven  after  without  bringing 
the  patient  nearer  to  his  goal.  Without  the  help 
of  the  psychotherapeutist  who  in  rare  cases  may 
prove  to  be  a  substitute  for  the  fortunes  of  life, 
this  "will  to  seem"  becomes  more  and  more  ac- 
centuated in  case  of  failure,  and  constantly 
strengthens  the  abstract,  main  line  of  the  old 
guiding  fiction.  One  of  the  principal  circuitous 
ways  along  which  this  ideal  organ — i.  e.  the  mas- 
culine protest, — works,  is  the  tendency  to  dispar- 
agement. That  is  the  reason  that  it  has  been 
mentioned  so  often  because  it  attracts  the  atten- 
tion of  the  physician  and  is  an  expression  of  the 
strength  of  the  neurotic  impulse.  It  likewise 
furnishes  an  ever-present  point  of  contact  by 
means  of  which  it  may  be  possible  to  instil  some 
insight  into  the  patient  and  it  is  at  the  bottom  of 
those  phenomena  which  Freud  has  described  as 
resistance  and  has  falsely  viewed  as  the  result  of 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     297 

repressed  sexual  excitations.  With  this  tendency 
the  neurotic  comes  to  the  physician  and  he  carries 
it  with  him,  as  does  also  the  normal  person,  when 
he  returns  home.  Only  that  then  his  increased 
insight  stands  as  a  guard,  warning  him  against 
giving  expression  to  this  tendency  and  thus  the 
patient  is  forced  to  show  his  desire  to  he  "first"  in 
other  ways. 

One  should  never  hesitate  to  guard  all  expres- 
sions of  doubt,  of  critique,  of  forgetfulness,  of 
tardiness,  all  demands  of  the  patient,  relapses 
after  improvements,  continued  silence,  as  well  as 
adherence  to  symptoms  as  effective  means  of  the 
tendency  toward  disparagement  directed  against 
the  psychotherapeutist.  One  will  rarely  err  in 
proceeding  thus  and  usually  be  justified  in  this 
opinion  by  the  comparison  of  coincident  phe- 
nomena of  a  similar  trend.  The  expressions  of 
these  tendencies  are  often  of  the  most  subtile  na- 
ture. Shall  I  add  that  the  most  extensive  experi- 
ence and  knowledge  in  regard  to  this  "tendency 
to  disparage"  is  barely  sufficient  to  prevent  being 
taken  by  surprise,  and  that  a  great  deal  of  tact, 
renouncement  of  authority,  and  even  friendliness, 
watchful  interest  and  the  consciousness  of  being 
in  the  presence  of  a  sick  person  with  whom  it  is 
out  of  place  to  engage  in  strife  are  indispensable 
to  good  results? 

I  found  it  necessary  once  to  explain  to  a  stut- 


298  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

tering  patient  the  position  of  the  larynx,  by 
means  of  a  drawing.  Instead  of  taking  the 
drawing  home  with  him  as  he  had  intended  in  or- 
der to  give  it  further  consideration,  he  left  it  with 
me  on  the  table.  The  next  day  he  was  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  late,  first  went  to  the  toilet,  related 
something  of  another  patient  who  had  complained 
of  me,  and  after  some  silence  related  a  dream 
which  ran  as  follows : 

"It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  been  looking  at  a 
drawing.  A  cylinder  extended  out  from  a  cir- 
cle; it  did  not  run  straight  hut  sideways." 

The  interpretation  showed  that  this  dream  had 
reference  to  the  drawing  of  the  larynx  on  which 
the  larynx  was  drawn  straight  downwards.  The 
patient  argued  with  me  in  the  dream  as  though  he 
would  say  "How  would  it  be  if  my  physician  were 
wrong?"  and  thus  revealed  to  me  his  distrustful 
attitude — the  fear  of  being  deceived  and  at  the 
same  time  the  tendency  to  disparagement  directed 
against  me,  which  had  been  revealed  by  the  sub- 
conscious measures  of  the  forgetfulness,  the  de- 
lay, the  recital  of  the  complaint,  the  silence,  and 
finally  by  the  tentative  endeavor  in  the  dream  to 
put  me  in  the  ^vrong.  One  may  justly  expect 
that  the  patient  applies  his  stuttering  for  the  same 
purpose  against  me  and  will  continue  thus  to  use 
it.     In  spite  of  many  contradictions  he  forced  me 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     299 

into  the  role  of  a  former  teacher  whom  he  often 
corrected,  so  that  he  could  continue  to  use  against 
me  his  former  artifices.^  This  was  revealed  by 
his  remarks  concerning  his  dreams  and  further 
from  the  fact  that  his  disease  was  assumed  and 
adhered  to  in  order  to  decry  his  father  and  gain 
superiority  over  him. 

A  female  patient  who  was  assigned  to  me  for 
treatment  because  of  depression,  suicidal  ideas, 
weeping  fits  and  "lesbischen  Neigungen"  was 
sent  by  me  after  a  brief  course  of  treatment  be- 
cause  of  the  suspicion  of  a  genital  affection,  to  a 
gjTiecologist  who  removed  a  large  myoma  and 
prognosticated  a  cure  of  the  neiu-osis  from  the 
operation.  After  the  operation  the  patient 
journeyed  to  her  home  and  from  there  wrote  me 
that  the  gynecologist  was  right  in  his  prognosis. 
Of  course  she  added  it  was  to  be  expected  that 
the  operation  succeeded  better  in  the  case  of  a 
countess  upon  whom  the  same  surgeon  had  oper- 
ated, and  of  whom  she  had  read  in  the  papers, 
than  it  had  in  her  case.  Soon  afterward  she  vis- 
ited me,  argued  against  one  of  my  contributions 
which  she  had  in  some  way  procm'ed,  declared  her 
extreme  interest  in  my  method  of  treatment,  said 
her  condition  was  the  same  as  before  the  opera- 
tion and  vanished.     From  the  portion  of  her  his- 

2  An  artifice  which  had  for  its  purpose  a  tendencious,  deroga- 
tory, aflFective  expression. 


300  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

tory  which  she  communicated  to  me  dm*ing  the 
treatment  it  became  apparent  among  other  things 
that  she  hved  at  swords-points  with  her  whole  en- 
vironment, that  she  dominated  her  husband  en- 
tirely, that  she  hated  the  village  and  played  the 
man  psychically  and  sexually  to  one  of  her 
friends.  Her  fear  of  the  blessing  of  children  was 
astounding,  sexual  relations  unbearable  because 
her  husband  seemed  too  heavy.  When  the  latter 
visited  her  once  during  the  treatment,  she  had  the 
day  before  his  visit  the  following  dream: 

"It  seemed  to  me  that  the  whole  room  was  en- 
veloped hy  fire/' 

She  gave  the  information  spontaneously  that 
this  was  a  typical  dream,  and  that  it  always  re- 
turned at  the  time  of  her  menstrual  period. 
This  time  it  occurred  a  long  time  before  her  pe- 
riod. The  dream  could  be  easily  recognized  as 
an  attempt  to  use  a  feminine  situation,  menstrua- 
tion, for  the  purpose  of  the  masculine  protest — 
that  is  to  avoid  sexual  relations.  A  deeper  pene- 
tration into  the  meaning  which  would  certainly 
have  revealed  an  enuresis  in  childhood  (fire-my- 
oma see  "Studie,"  Appendix)  was  prevented  by 
the  interruption  of  the  treatment.  I  received  an- 
other letter  which  contained  the  assurance  that 
the  patient  from  now  on  would  try  to  find  peace 
in  her  environment  in  my  sense  of  the  word.     I 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.      301 

think  that  this  must  have  been  siill  difficult  for 
her. 

Obstinacy,  wildness  and  unruhness  may  in  the 
same  way  serve  as  the  proof  which  female  pa- 
tients seek  in  order  to  show  how  little  they  are 
fitted  for  the  feminine  role.  These  preparations 
begin  already  in  the  earliest  childhood  and  lead 
gradually  to  physical  and  psychic  aptitudes  in 
gestures,  facial  expression,  emotional  predisposi- 
tions and  mimicry,  while  the  character  develops 
in  the  direction  of  the  ideal  guiding  line  and  cau- 
tiously introduces  the  patients'  attitude  of  life. 
In  many  cases  these  characteristics  are  manifested 
in  a  direct  manner  and  serve  without  deviation  for 
the  expression  of  the  masculine  protest.  Or 
there  takes  place  a  change  of  formula  in  the  guid- 
ing fiction,  either  because  of  the  emergence  of 
contradictions  in  the  guiding  line,  in  the  event  of 
a  real  or  threatened  defeat,  or  because  of  some- 
thing that  usually  coincides  therewith,  namely,  an 
obstacle  of  reality  which  is  estimated  as  unsur- 
mountable.  Under  the  construction  of  a  secur- 
ity-giving anxiety  or  feeling  of  guilt,  or  security- 
giving  antithetical  traits  (dissociation  of  other 
writers),  the  deviations  in  neurotic  circuitous 
ways  follow.  But  the  preparatory  devices  per- 
sist. It  is  only  that  the  neurotic  cautiousness  in- 
troduces the  devia — under  these  new  forms  of  se- 
curity, anxiety,  feeling  of  guilt,  seizures,  when 


302  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

the  patient  would  otherwise  have  had  to  answer 
with  the  originally  developed  emotions  such  as, 
anger,  rage,  aggression.  Frequently  there  come 
to  light  purposefully  grouped  memory  pictures 
of  a  certain  "boundlessness,"  thoughts,  memories, 
illusions  as  though  one  were  boundlessly  desirous, 
sensuous,  demoniac,  criminal,  are  manifested,  at 
times  obviously  arranged  oversights  and  accidents 
which  are  nothing  else  than  admonitions  to  be 
cautious.  Or  the  sudden  termination  of  the  di- 
rect masculine  aggressiveness  takes  place  always 
just  before  a  decision,  a  peculiarity  which  char- 
acterizes many  neurotic  love  affairs.  The  devia- 
tion in  such  cases  from  the  direct  guiding  line 
may  follow  in  a  perverse  manner  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  craving  for  security,  or  the  guiding 
line  leads  him  to  seek  the  protection  of  the  father, 
mother,  God,  alcoholism  or  an  idea.  Attempts 
to  reach  the  top  through  feminine  means,  or  to  sur- 
pass at  least,  all  women,  leads  to  excessive  cleanli- 
ness, to  the  "cleaning  mania,"  to  a  masochistic 
subjection  or  coquetry,  to  a  desire  to  please  and 
in  female  patients  to  a  constant  fretting.  Along 
with  this  there  will  always  be  found  character- 
traits  and  tell-tale  traces  which  betray  that  the 
masculine  fiction  is  all-powerful  and  seeks  to  ar- 
rive at  its  purpose  by  these  circuitous  ways.  The 
excessive  eroticism  in  many  of  these  cases  is  not 
to  be  understood  as  real,  that  is  to  say,  as  depend- 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     303 

ing  upon  a  constitutional  basis  but  shows  itself  to 
be  associated  with  the  fiction,  and  to  be  due  to  an 
uninterrupted  attentiveness  which  has  taken  an 
erotic  direction.  The  same  is  true  of  perversions 
and  an  ajiparently  weakened  libido,  which  are 
constructed  from  neurotic  subterfuges.  All  sex- 
ual relations  in  the  neurosis  are  only  a  simile. 

The  fear  of  the  superiority  of  the  male  and  the 
depreciatory  struggle  directed  against  it  is  often 
clothed,  as  result  of  the  neurotic  antithetical  per- 
spective, in  phantasies  of  emasculation  which  have 
for  their  object  the  deprivation  of  the  male  of 
worth.  In  the  dreams  of  these  female  neurotic 
patients  this  comes  clearly  to  light  and  can  be 
readily  proved  by  coexistent  derogatory  tenden- 
cies. One  of  these  di-eams  is  here  given.  The 
patient  came  under  my  care  shortly  after  she  had 
undergone  an  operation  for  a  fistula,  because  of  a 
compulsory  thought  and  excitement.  The  com- 
pulsory thought  ran,  "I  will  never  be  able  to  at- 
tain anything."  At  our  very  first  meeting  she 
expressed  the  thought  whether  I  would  be  able  to 
attain  anything.  The  same  line  of  disparage- 
ment illuminated  her  dream.  She  dreamed,  "I 
cried  out  in  my  dream,  Marie,  the  fistula  is  there 
again"  The  surgeon  had  promised  her  complete 
recovery  and  kept  his  word.  He  is  under  obli- 
gations to  her  in  many  ways  and  did  not  wish  to 
take  a  fee.     The  patient  became  very  excited  over 


304  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

this  and  regarded  it  as  an  humiliation.  For  some 
time  after  she  tortured  herself  with  plans  for  pay- 
ing the  debt.  Her  servant  was  called  Marie,  and 
she  had  never  spoken  to  her  about  the  operation. 
If  there  should  take  place  a  new  breaking  out  of 
the  fistula  her  first  trip  would  be  to  the  surgeon 
to  whom  she  would  express  her  opinion.  Marie, 
a  female  servant  becomes  the  surgeon.  The  pa- 
tient imagines  the  circumstances  demanded  by  her 
masculine  egoistic  feeling,  the  surgeon  has  oper- 
ated poorly,  has  not  kept  his  promise,  is  a  woman 
and  a  servant  at  the  same  time.  This  expresses 
the  way  in  which  she  could  attain  everything  if 
she  were  only  a  man. 

When  one  examines  the  published  analyses  of 
no  matter  what  psychological  school  the  mechan- 
ism of  the  neurotic  masculine  protest  will  always 
be  found  therein.  I  shall  again  emphasize  this  in 
connection  with  the  analysis  of  a  case  of  migraine. 

The  patient  related  immediately  from  the  rem- 
iniscences of  her  childhood  that  she  had  constantly 
lived  in  conflict  with  her  elder  brothers  because 
they  wished  to  dominate  her.  This  sort  of  rem- 
iniscences led,  as  soon  as  they  were  voluntarily  re- 
lated, to  a  hidden  contest  against  male  domina- 
tion, and  one  will  never  be  deceived  in  the  as- 
sumption that  other  character-traits  also  point  to 
this  strife  to  become  equal  to  the  male.  Unin- 
fluenced, our  patient  continued  to  relate  that  she 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     305 

played  almost  exclusively  with  boys  and  was 
treated  by  them  as  one  of  their  kind.  This 
method  of  expression  betrayed  very  clearly  the 
higli  estimation  in  which  the  male  sex  was  held, 
which  brought  this  girl  nearer  to  her  father — 
something  which  may  easily  be  interpreted  as 
sexual  love  for  the  father  and  as  the  "incest  com- 
plex." 

The  development  of  our  patient  took  the  same 
course.  She  took  her  father  wholly  as  her  ideal ; 
especially  as  she  once  caught  her  mother  in  a  lie 
she  was  anxious  to  imitate  her  father's  example  of 
truthfulness  and  punctuality.^  She  remembered 
also  that  her  father  had  often  regretted  that  she 
was  not  a  boy,  and  that  it  was  his  wish  that  she 
should  study.  In  this  situation  an  egoistic  feel- 
ing was  naturally  developed  in  which  ambitious 
efforts  could  not  be  absent.  On  the  other  hand 
her  bashfulness  which  wrecked  many  of  her  prin- 
ciples was  very  noticeable  to  herself  and  others. 
This  bashfulness  is  found  with  extraordinary  fre- 
quency in  the  histories  of  neurotics.  It  is  identi- 
cal with  the  feeling  of  uncertainty,  as  soon  as  this 
is  manifested  in  relations  with  others.  Blushing, 
stuttering,  downcast  looks,  avoidance  of  the  so- 
ciety of  adults,  excitement  before  examinations 

3  What  other  authors  term  imitatlveness,  identification,  is  always 
to  be  looked  upon  as  the  assumption  of  a  model  for  the  purpose  of 
a  heightening  of  the  ego-consciousness. 


306  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

and  stage  fright  often  accompanj^  the  attempts  at 
approaches  to  other  j^eople  or  at  the  estabHshment 
of  relations  with  them.  Analysis  shows  that  the 
feeling  of  inferiority  is  the  som'ce  of  this  sort  of 
imcertainty,  usually  accompanied  by  a  strong 
feeling  of  shame.  The  feeling  of  inferiority  is 
conditioned  by  somatic  inferiority  which  makes  it- 
self felt  psychically,  by  faults  of  childhood  and 
strong  psychic  pressure  on  the  part  of  parents 
and  relatives,  and  finally  by  real  or  imagined 
femininit}^  which  develops  early  in  strong  con- 
trast to  a  male  member  of  the  family  (father  or 
brother).  The  analogy  according  to  which  the 
most  diverse  emotions  of  being  belittled,  of  humil- 
iation, of  inferiority  are  apperceived  by  the  child 
is  then  usually  the  analogy  of  *'the  smallness  of 
the  penis,"  which  is  to  be  understood  symbolically, 
and  thoughts  of  castration  develop,  of  a  feminine 
role  in  sexual  relations,  of  conception  and  preg- 
nancy or  of  persecution,  of  being  stabbed  or 
wounded,  of  falling  and  being  "beneath."  All 
these  fictions  are  revealed  in  day-dreams,  halluci- 
nations, dreams,  in  so  far  as  they  are  not  wholly 
supplanted  by  the  fiction  of  the  masculine  pro- 
test and  express  a  feeling  of  being  belittled,  which 
breaks  forth  in  the  thought,  "I  am  a  woman," 
against  which  the  egoistic  feeling  presses  forward 
and  the  masculine  protest  struggles. 

Of  our  patient  we  hear  that  she  had  some 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     307 

knowledge  of  sexual  relations  at  a  time  when 
from  lack  of  experience  she  was  unable  to  take 
into  account  its  results  and  purposes.  In  such 
cases  we  may  always  expect  to  find  bashfulness, 
shame  and  doubt,  and  in  later  years  fear  of  tests 
and  decisions  in  every  form,  traits  of  character 
which  resolve  themselves  analytically  into  the  idea 
that  others  might  be  able  to  discover  on  the  per- 
son of  the  patient  genital  defects  or  omissions. 
The  characteristics  which  display  an  effort  to  at- 
tain equality  with  the  male  sex  are  usually  mani- 
fested at  an  early  age,  and  this  effort  occupies  the 
foreground,  while  in  many  cases  because  of  a 
tinge  of  hopelessness  "the  innate  coloring  of  the 
decision"  is  affected.  Because  the  direct  route  to 
masculinity  is  closed  or  seems  to  be  so,  circuitous 
and  deviating  ways  are  sought  out.  On  one  of 
these  circuitous  ways  lies  the  socially  valuable  ef- 
fort of  woman  toward  emancipation,  on  another, 
the  private  expression  of  the  masculine  protest, 
the  neurosis  of  woman,  the  construction  of  the 
ideal  male  organ. 

It  was  easy  to  see  in  the  case  of  this  patient 
that  in  her  childhood  she  had  sought  to  attain  the 
domination  of  man,  of  her  brothers  and  her 
father,  as  she  apparently  had  made  very  short 
work  of  her  mother.  Her  father  fell  entirely 
under  her  authority.  After  a  little  experience 
the  conclusion  is  easily  arrived  at  concerning  the 


308  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

direction  of  her  neurotic  symptoms,  that  her 
headache  and  migraine  represent  since  her  mar- 
riage a  means  for  gaining  the  mastery  over  her 
husband.  And  in  this  mastery  she  sought  a  sub- 
stitute for  her  mascuhne  power  which  she  be- 
heved  to  have  lost. 

I  know  the  objection  which  might  be  raised  at 
this  point.  How  shall  the  severe  suffering  of  a 
neurosis,  the  terrible  pain  of  trigeminal  neural- 
gia, insomnia,  unconsciousness,  paralysis,  mi- 
graine all  be  thrown  into  the  bargain  merely  as  a 
means  to  an  end,  because  of  the  failure  to  attain 
equality  with  man?  I  have  myself  struggled 
against  this  conviction  which  thrust  itself  upon 
me.  Is  the  case  very  much  different  when  human 
beings  endure  all  sorts  of  hardships  for  a  whole 
life  time  in  order  to  attain  some  other  worthless 
bubble?  Furthermore,  as  I  have  already  shown, 
on  these  neurotic  circuitous  paths  to  masculinity 
are  found  also  crime,  prostitution,  the  psychosis, 
suicide.  This  in  addition  to  the  mystery  which 
shrouds  human  psychic  mechanisms  may  be  cited 
in  support  of  my  understanding  of  the  matter. 
The  psychic  therapy  of  the  neuroses  is  certainly 
based  upon  an  understanding  of  the  exaggerated 
valuation  of  the  male  destiny.  And  I  draw  from 
this  objection  the  advantage  in  regard  to  my  pa- 
tients inasmuch  as  I  endeavor  to  show  them  how 
they,  placed  before  a  choice  between  a  natural 


TENDExNCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     309 

role  and  the  neurotic  masculine  goal,  choose  the 
greater  of  the  two  evils. 

From  the  previous  history  of  our  patient  the 
further  facts  may  be  emphasized  that  she  always 
had  a  disinclination  to  play  with  dolls,  further- 
more that  until  her  marriage  she  took  the  great- 
est pleasure  in  gymnastics  and  sports.  That 
these  efforts  too,  served  as  a  substitute  for  mas- 
culinity is  manifested  more  from  their  connection 
with  other  masculine  traits  than  from  their  own 
nature,  more  especially  from  a  sort  of  importun- 
ity with  which  the  patient  spoke  of  them.  She 
was  also  passionately  fond  of  extensive  touring, 
of  which  inclination  since  the  birth  of  her  child, 
whom  she  wished  and  expected  to  be  male,  only 
the  desire  to  make  occasional  journeys  re- 
mained. 

The  error  must  be  avoided,  however,  of  assum- 
ing that  the  traits  of  character  here  described  and 
emphasized  by  the  patient  herself  formed  isolated 
islands  in  the  extensive  soul-life  of  a  woman.  On 
the  contrary,  it  must  be  assumed  that  these  mas- 
culine traits  came  to  expression  under  the  pres- 
sure of  a  dominating  tendency,  had  their  origin  in 
a  distinct  life-plan  and  became  conspicuous  phe- 
nomena only  because  they  had  the  power  to  do  so, 
while  all  around  these  phenomena  there  existed 
an  indistinct,  only  occasionally  manifested  mascu- 
line craving  which  was  principally  occupied  with 


310  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

the  prevention  and  transformation  of  feminine 
emotions  until  such  time  as  it  shall  have  reached 
an  independent  existence.  In  this  conflict  of 
masculine  against  feminine  emotions  the  egoistic 
feeling  is  thrown  entirely  on  the  side  of  masculin- 
ity and  makes  use  even  of  persistently  emerging 
feminine  emotions,  among  others  also  of  the  fe- 
male sexual  appetite  in  order  to  collect  them  as 
humiliating  and  dangerous/  to  group  them,  to  ex- 
aggerate, to  emphasize  them  and  at  the  same  time 
to  surround  them  with  sentinels  so  that  they  may 
be  robbed  of  their  influence.  These  sentinels,  se- 
curities, usually  extend  beyond  the  sphere  of  fem- 
inine emotions.  One  always  finds  that  these  re- 
assurances and  protective  devices,  among  which 
should  be  placed  our  symptoms  of  disease,  do  not 
stop  at  the  mere  fulfillment  of  their  destiny,  that 
is,  the  avoidance  of  defeat,  but  that  they  permeate 
these  patients  with  a  sort  of  cautiousness  which 
finally  renders  them  unfit  for  anything.  It  is 
only  then  that  the  primary  insecurity  which  may 
be  likened  to  a  fear  of  a  feminine  role  is  at  an  end, 
but  by  this  time  it  has  permeated  the  entire  life- 
relation  of  the  individual  and  forces  him  outside 
the  realm  of  all  social  relationship.  We  find  all 
our  patients  in  the  midst  of  this  retreat  and  their 

4  This  affective  accentuation  is  always  derived  from  a  purpose- 
ful device.  Feminine  role  and  abyss,  drowning,  death,  being  run 
over,  or  strangled. 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     311 

symptoms  are  for  them  assurances  that  they  will 
not  be  forced  back  into  the  tumult  of  life.  From 
this  there  develops  a  neurotic  picture  which  often 
reveals  a  reversion  to  simpler,  more  child-like  re- 
lations, either  because  these  are  developed  after 
maturity,  or  for  the  reason  that  maturity  was 
generally  impeded.  Thus  many  act  as  though 
they  were  in  the  nm'sery.  Family  relations  be- 
come accentuated  to  an  extraordinary  degree,  or 
instead  of  childish  love  for  the  parents  the  old 
childish  obstinacy  develops  and  both  factors  are 
used  as  guiding  symbols,  as  though  the  patient 
sought  to  discover  in  all  persons  the  father  or 
mother.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  comes 
in  conflict  with  reality  on  account  of  this  fiction, 
the  patient  holds  fast  to  it  because  he  found  se- 
curity in  the  relations  existing  in  the  nursery. 
Kipling  relates  of  a  person  lying  in  the  death 
struggle,  whom  he  observed  until  the  expected 
cry  for  the  mother  came  from  his  lips.  One  has 
only  to  listen  to  the  street- Arabs,  who,  when  hard 
pressed,  immediately  cry  out  for  their  mother,  in 
order  to  comprehend  this  longing  for  security. 
The  same  longing  for  security  has  crept  into  the 
worshipping  of  the  Mother  of  God.  In  girls,  the 
longing  for  security  is  as  a  rule  in  more  pro- 
nounced analogy  to  the  relation  to  the  father. 
The  "uterine  phantasy"  which  is  placed  in  the 
foreground  by  G.  Griiner  I  have  also  foimd  em- 


312  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ployed  by  neurotics  only  when  they  wish  to  ex- 
press that  peace  can  be  found  only  with  the 
mother,  or  when  they  have  thoughts  of  suicide, 
that  is,  the  wish  to  return  to  the  same  state  in 
which  they  were  before  birth.  (The  hermaphro- 
ditic progression  backward.) 

Our  patient,  too,  as  child  and  girl  sought  this 
leaning  on  her  father  who  spoiled  her  not  a  little. 
The  mother,  as  is  often  the  case,  was  more  at- 
tracted to  her  brothers.  This  trait  also  shows  it- 
self to  be  conditioned  by  the  exaggerated  estima- 
tion of  the  masculine  principle,  which  the  father, 
being  a  man,  would  more  readily  renounce  in  her 
favor.  Our  patient  soon  noticed  that  her  father's 
care  for  her  increased  whenever  she  was  ill. 
Thus  she  came  to  have  a  special  preference  for 
being  sick,  which  procured  for  her  further  pet- 
ting, love,  and  sweetmeats.  She  must  have  re- 
garded as  the  most  appropriate  substitute  for 
that  manliness  which  she  believed  to  be  lost  to  her, 
that  condition  of  sickness  which  gained  for  her  the 
command  of  the  whole  house,  the  gratification  of 
all  her  wishes  and  permitted  her  to  escape  all  un- 
pleasant encounters  in  school  and  society.  Yes, 
it  meant  for  her  the  highest  attainable  potency, 
her  feeling  of  security,  as  soon  as  her  father  be- 
lieved that  she  was  ill.  And  she  sometimes  pre- 
tended to  be  ill,  that  is,  she  simulated  or  exag- 
gerated. 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     313 

This  fact  of  simulation  in  childhood  is  often 
found  in  the  anamneses  of  neurotics.  I  have 
called  attention  to  this  phenomenon  in  the  "Psy- 
chischen  Behandlung  der  Trigeminus  Neural- 
gic," and  have  mentioned  that  children  often  pre- 
tend to  be  deaf,  blind,  dumb,  etc.  E.  Jones  men- 
tions this  fact  in  his  "Hamletstudie,"  and  calls  at- 
tention to  the  resemblance  of  Hamlet's  pretense 
to  that  of  children.  There  are  many  historical 
examples  such  as  Saul,  Claudius  and  others,  and 
they  show  us  the  problem  in  its  pure  culture. 
The  accompanying  thought  is  always  how  can  I 
secure  myself  from  a  danger,  how  can  I  avoid  a 
defeat!  It  is  clear  that  the  neurotic  who  apper- 
ceives  according  to  the  analogj^  man-woman  per- 
ceives in  the  domination  of  a  position  a  masculine 
equivalent,  a  substitute  and  protection  for  the 
threatened  loss  of  manliness.  And  the  technique 
of  simulation  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  individ- 
ual sets  forth  a  fiction  and  acts  in  accordance 
therewith  as  though  he  had  the  defect  which 
would  require  such  action,  while  he  knows  and 
maintains  that  he  has  no  such  defect.  We  main- 
tain that  the  psychically  conditioned  neurotic 
symptom  arises  in  the  same  way  only  with  this 
difference  that  the  fiction  is  not  recognized  as  a 
fiction,  but  is  held  as  true.^ 

As  is  frequently  the  case,  we  can  obtain  the 

6  See  theoretical  part,  Chapter  III,  "The  accentuated  fiction." 


314  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

best  insight  into  this  condition  not  from  a  neurotic 
symptom,  but  from  a  borderhne  case.  We  mean 
the  psychology  of  sympathy.  We  are  in  a  posi- 
tion to  feel  the  suffering  of  another  person  as  if  it 
affected  our  own  corporal  sphere.  Yes,  we  can 
even  feel  the  suffering  of  another  in  anticipation 
before  its  occurrence.  Well  known  examples  of 
this  are  the  anxious  feelings  which  many  persons 
experience  when  they  see  others,  servant  girls, 
roof  workers  or  circus  actors  in  dangerous  situa- 
tions, or  even  when  they  only  think  of  such  situa- 
tions. These  sjTnptoms  are  usually  felt  by  those 
who  suffer  from  dizziness  when  in  high  places  and 
they  act  when  others  are  in  danger  exactly  as 
though  they  themselves  stood  at  a  window  or  on 
a  rock.  They  withdraw  under  the  feeling  of 
anxiety,  placing  a  safe  distance  between  them- 
selves and  the  usually  not  dangerous  position,  in 
short,  they  have  a  feeling  akin  to  that  which  they 
would  have  were  they  themselves  in  a  dangerous 
position.  Here  the  exaggerated  cautiousness  be- 
comes apparent  which  in  nem'otics  is  so  strong 
that  they  will  not  cross  a  bridge  for  fear  that  they 
might  fall  into  the  water  or  throw  themselves  into 
it.  I  have  found  similar  mechanisms  of  cautious- 
ness in  all  cases  of  fear  of  places  and  they  reveal 
to  us  that  we  have  a  patient  who  wishes  to  avoid 
decisions,  who  fears  whether  he  is  equal  to  a  cer- 
tain situation,  usually  the  sexual  partner.     In  all 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     315 

other  phobias,  too,  as  I  have  shown  in  my  descrip- 
tion of  syphihdophobia,  (Zeitschr.  f.  Psych.,  Bd. 
I,  Heft  9,  1911),  this  "sympathy"  in  a  situation 
which  has  not  as  yet  been  realized,  but  which  may 
be  expected  with  probabihty  constitutes  the  char- 
acteristic symptom  (Lipps) .  It  reveals  itself  as 
a  very  efficient  tool  of  the  craving  for  security, 
takes  the  place  in  many  cases  of  a  morality  which 
is  not  invincible  in  character.  Careful  examina- 
tion of  this  character-trait  reveals  that  it  has  its 
foundation  in  that  sort  of  feeling-participation 
for  purposes  of  security,  which  is  clearly  set  forth 
in  Kant's  categorical  imperatives  for  the  expres- 
sion of  the  whole  character,  when  this  philosopher 
wishes  each  single  individual  to  be  influenced  in 
his  action  by  a  point  of  view  which  permits  of  be- 
ing regarded  as  if  it  were  elevated  to  a  universal 
maxim.® 

Fictions,  maxims,  guiding  principles  then  simi- 
lar to  the  reassuring  fictions  of  the  simulator  form 
part  of  the  mental  character  of  all  persons,  espe- 
cially of  neurotically  inclined  children.  And  re- 
duced to  their  nucleus  all  of  these  formulae  are  as 
follows:  Act  as  though  you  were  a  complete 
man,  or  wished  to  be  one.  The  content  of  this 
procedure  which  usually  turns  out  to  be  in  the 
nature  of  a  substitute  is  determined  beforehand 
by  the  experience  of  the  child  and  by  the  special 

eVaihinger,  "The  Philosophy  of  As  If." 


316  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

type  of  somatic  inferiority  from  which  he  suffers, 
but  is  subject  to  special  alterations  which  must  be 
regarded  as  formal  changes  arising  from  special 
circumstances  connected  with  experiences  to 
which  he  gives  neurotic  valuations. 

Somatic  inferiority  determines  through  the  ac- 
companying psychic  phenomena  of  repugnance 
the  direction  of  the  ideas  of  pleasure  and  thus 
conducts  the  compensatory  processes  into  the 
psychic  regions.  Here,  too,  we  behold  the  crav- 
ing for  security  at  work  and  usually  in  such  a 
purposeful  manner  that  it  works  coefficients 
which  offer  security  and  thus  gives  rise  to  an  over- 
compensation."^ In  the  development,  for  in- 
stance of  the  stuttering  Demosthenes  to  the  great- 
est orator  of  Greece,  of  Clara  Schumann,  who 
was  deaf  to  an  accomplished  musician,  of  the 
near-sighted  G.  Freitag,  of  many  poets  and 
painters  with  anomalies  of  the  eye  to  visually 
talented  persons  and  of  the  numerous  physicians 
with  anomalies  of  hearing,  we  perceive  the  result 
of  the  craving  for  security.  We  likewise  see  the 
result  in  every  weak  child  who  wishes  to  be  a 
hero,  in  the  clumsy  child  with  thyroid  affection 
who  wishes  to  be  an  athletic  racer  and  later  in 
life  always  tries  to  be  the  first. 

But  the  direction  of  the  craving  for  security  in 
order  to  have  its  objective  point  must  depend 

T  J.  Reich,  "Art  and  the  Eye,"  Ost,  Rundschau,  1909. 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     317 

upon  an  example.  And  here  the  man  offers  more 
attraction  to  the  egoistic  feeling  of  childhood  than 
does  the  woman.  Indeed  it  seems  that  a  female 
example  can  only  be  imitated  after  an  initiatory 
conflict  and  only  when  this  feminine  example  per- 
mits the  attainment  of  mastery  along  the  lines  of 
least  resistance. 

This  was  the  case  with  our  patient  as  it  often 
is  with  cases  of  migraine.  Numerous  writers 
have  emphasized  the  circumstance  that  it  is  so 
often  possible  to  trace  the  inheritance  of  migraine 
from  the  mother.  We  must  give  up  the  idea  of 
the  inheritance  of  migraine  in  the  same  manner 
as  we  were  obliged  to  abandon  the  view  of  its  or- 
ganic etiology.  I  have  already  explained  the  na- 
ture of  this  question/  in  the  case  of  a  seven-year- 
old  girl  and  had  before  that  been  convinced  that 
a  feeling  of  uncertainty  and  humiliation  precedes 
the  attack  of  migraine,  and  that  the  attacks  serve 
to  place  the  whole  household  at  the  service  of  the 
sufferer,  for  which  reason  the  example  of  the 
mother  is  imitated.  The  husband,  the  father, 
other  relatives  suffer  no  less  from  the  attack  than 
does  the  patient.  Thus  migraine  is  to  be  placed 
in  the  series  of  neurotic  affections  which  serve  to 
secure  the  mastery  in  the  household  and  in  the 
family.  That  this  tyranny  has  a  masculine  sig- 
nificance and  can  be  reduced  to  the  wish  to  be  a 

8  "Neurotische  Disposition,"  Jahrbuch  Bleuler-Freud,  1908. 


818  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

man  becomes  obvious  from  further  analysis. 
But  a  brief  consideration  of  the  migraine  which 
occurs  at  the  time  of  menstruation  teaches  us  to 
understand  in  this  case  also  the  dissatisfaction 
with  the  feminine  role.  I  have  in  various  in- 
stances learned  to  recognize  this  connection  with 
epilepsy,  sciatica,  trigeminal  neuralgia.  I  have 
proved  that  these  latter  conditions  in  the  cases 
mentioned  by  me  were  psychogenic  in  nature  and 
originated  whenever  stronger  securities  were  de- 
manded. 

The  only  sphere  of  influence  which  remained 
for  our  patient  was  her  tyranny  over  her  father, 
over  whom  she  had  complete  power  and  this  did 
not  entirely  satisfy  her  lust  for  power.  Hence  a 
"still,  still  more"  declared  itself  as  is  often  the 
case  in  neurotic  affections  and  she  sought  a  more 
obvious  grasp  of  the  subjugation  of  the  father. 
Her  mother  suffered  from  migraine  and  the  time 
of  her  attacks  was,  as  is  usual  with  patients  suf- 
fering from  migraine,  a  time  of  absolute  power. 
Therefore  our  patient  also  who  comprehended  the 
value  of  the  disease  pretended  to  be  suffering 
from  it.^  And  our  patient  succeeded  in  doing 
what  aboriginal  man  succeeded  in  doing  when 

8  In  my  work  on  "The  Neurotic  Disposition,"  I  have  already 
emphasized  what  must  likewise  be  mentioned  here,  that  an  original 
somatic  inferiority  determines  the  choice  of  a  symptom.  In  the 
neurosis  the  mechanism  becomes  the  property  of  the  psyche  in  the 
form  of  a  disease-preparedness. 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     319 

he  made  himself  gods  who  filled  him  with  terror, 
in  creating  for  herself  the  migraine.  This  "as  if" 
creation,  this  fiction  became  substantially  inde- 
pendent, so  that  the  pain  and  suffering  could 
awaken  whenever  the  patient  needed  them.  The 
dramatic  performance  became  so  successful  that 
the  patient,  because  of  its  value  in  the  direction  of 
her  tendencies,  no  longer  saw  through  the  fiction. 
Indeed  she  won  by  means  of  the  same  a  superior- 
ity over  and  security  against  the  husband  just  as 
she  had  previously  done  in  regard  to  her  father 
when  she  made  use  of  this  weapon  to  attain  se- 
curity. She  strove  to  attain  a  masculine  part  in 
the  marriage  relation,  directing  all  her  activities 
towards  gaining  the  mastery  over  her  husband, 
but  as  there  always  remained  an  "and  yet"  it  was 
necessary  to  obtain  still  further  substitutes  as  evi- 
dences of  power.  And  the  most  important  of 
these  substitute  formations  was  the  resolution 
not  to  have  any  more  children.  It  had  become  a 
general  principle  in  the  household  of  this  patient 
as  in  many  others  (one  of  which  I  described  in 
the  "Mannliche  Einstellung  Weiblicher  Neuroti- 
ker,"  Zeitsch.,  f.  Psychoanalyse,  Heft  4,  1910) 
that  a  woman  who  suffered  from  such  headaches 
should  have  no  more  children.  Insomnia,  impos- 
sibility of  going  to  sleep  again  after  having  been 
disturbed,  references  to  the  difficulties  concern- 
ing the  place  of  residence,  various  protective  ar- 


320  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

rangements  and  the  spoiling  of  the  only  child 
completed  the  security. 

That  these  phenomena  are  merely  a  new  view 
of  the  old  wish  for  masculinity  is  proved  by  her 
first  dream. 

"I  was  at  the  depot  with  my  mother.  We 
wished  to  visit  my  father  who  was  ill.  I  was 
afraid  of  Trussing  the  train.  Then  suddenly  the 
father  appeared.  Then  I  was  at  a  watch  maker's 
and  wanted  to  buy  a  substitute  for  the  one  I  had 
lost/' 

She  felt  superior  to  her  mother  who  was  greatly 
respected  by  her,  and  also  to  her  father  who  hu- 
mored her  slightest  wish.  Sick  means  weak. 
The  father  had  died  a  short  time  previously. 
Shortly  after  his  death  she  had  one  of  her  dread- 
ful attacks  of  migraine.  In  the  dream  he  came  to 
life  again  and  his  person  signified  for  her  a 
maximating  of  her  ego-consciousness.  She  had 
always  been  impatient,  afraid  of  being  late.  Her 
brother  came  before  she  did  and  became  a  man. 
She  felt  spurred  on  to  hasten  (a  man  does  it 
with  one  bound,  a  woman  with  a  hundred),  in 
order  to  arrive  at  the  summit  of  her  ego-conscious- 
ness. The  day  before  the  dream  she  was  hasten- 
ing to  a  concert  and  was  held  back  by  her  mother. 
Women  are  often  late  and  she  did  not  wish  to  fol- 
low their  example. 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     321 

Reality  reminded  her  nevertheless  that  she  was 
a  woman  like  her  mother.  The  thought  lies  in 
the  picture  of  being  together  with  her  mother  at 
the  depot.  Her  aggressive  affect  which  is  identi- 
cal with  the  masculine  protest  is  directed  against 
her  husband,  against  her  father.  In  the  further 
analysis  of  the  dream  the  disparaging  thoughts 
come  to  light,  such  as  that  the  wife  is  stronger, 
more  vigorous  and  healthier  than  the  man.  Then 
as  a  further  incentive  to  conflict,  the  father  (the 
man)  suddenly  emerges.  This  simile  is  taken 
from  swimming  and  signifies  in  the  neurotic  per- 
spective the  "being  above"  in  opposition  to  being 
"beneath."  While  the  patient  was  afraid  of 
missing  the  train,  of  being  left  behind  in  compari- 
son with  another,  that  is  to  say  in  comparison  with 
the  man,  which  can  be  supplied  from  the  connec- 
tion— ^to  submit  to  him,  she  notices  as  her  ex- 
perience increases  that  the  man  is  first,  is  above. 
The  application  of  a  picture,  of  an  abstract  idea 
in  space  for  the  purpose  of  illustrating  the  feel- 
ing of  being  belittled  is  often  found  in  the  neuro- 
sis, (See  Syphilidophobia,  1.  c.)  because  it  is 
adapted  to  prepare  the  disposition  to  conflict  in 
the  most  extensive  manner  by  means  of  the  ficti- 
tious, abstract  antithesis  "nothing  or  all."  In  the 
same  manner  the  artifice  is  made  use  of  in  paint- 
ing, of  representing  the  power  of  woman  and  the 
fear  she  inspires  by  giving  her  a  higher  position 


322  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

in  space.  In  religious  and  cosmological  phan- 
tasies this  representation  of  superiority  is  the  ele- 
vation of  the  position  assigned.  That  in  her 
dream  the  patient  came  through  the  spatially 
antithetical  scheme  according  to  the  analogy  of 
"man-woman,"  is  indicated  in  the  position  of  the 
patient  beside  her  mother,  that  is,  with  her 
mother. 

Thus  the  first  dream  which  the  patient  had 
during  the  course  of  the  treatment  begins  with 
considerations  of  masculine  and  feminine  roles. 
One  should  never  neglect  to  take  into  considera- 
tion unp  re  judicially  the  possibility  of  the  contin- 
uation of  the  dream  and  to  await  and  compare 
new  confirmatory  data,  even  though  the  psycho- 
therapeutist  may  have  the  most  firm  convictions 
concerning  the  significance  of  the  problem  for  the 
neurosis.  The  further  explanation  of  the  patient 
was  in  regard  to  a  watch  chain  which  had  been  lost 
through  the  fault  of  her  husband.  She  cannot 
remember  having  lost  a  watch.  Interrogated 
concerning  the  significance  in  the  dream  of  the 
watch  which  was  substituted  for  the  chain,  the  pa- 
tient answered  with  considerable  affect  but  eva- 
sively, that  it  was  not  the  loss  of  the  chain  but  of  a 
charm  attached  to  it  that  disturbed  her.  In  short 
the  watch  hanging  to  a  lady's  chain  is  identical 
with  tlie  lost  watch  charm  for  which  the  patient 
grieves  and  for  which  she  seeks  a  substitute. 


TENDENCY  TO  DISPARAGE  OTHERS,  ETC.     323 

The  dream  began  with  a  symbolic  contrast  rep- 
resented in  space  of  an  inferior  femininity  with  a 
superior  masculinity  and  ends  with  the  logically 
following  conclusion  of  the  striving  for  a  substi- 
tute for  the  lost  masculinity.  In  this  fictitious 
guiding  line  thus  constructed  the  character,  the 
affect  reaction,  the  predispositions  and  neurotic 
symptoms  must  be  represented,  the  correctness  of 
which  assumption  the  result  of  the  case  substanti- 
ated. The  character-traits  of  impatience,  discon- 
tent, obstinacy  and  reticence  proved  therefore  to 
be,  as  did  all  the  rest,  auxiliary  lines  which  stood 
in  a  dependent  relation  to  the  guiding  fiction,  that 
of  attaining  a  masculine  elevation. 


CHAPTER  V 

CEUELTY.      CONSCIENCE.      PERVERSION   AND 

NEUROSIS. 

The  discovery  of  traits  of  a  cruel  nature  in  the 
very  earliest  childhood  is  unusually  frequent  in 
the  course  of  an  analysis  of  neuroses  and  psy- 
choses. It  would  be  wrong  to  apply  our  moral 
standards  to  the  first  two  years  of  life,  and  to  re- 
gard the  activities  of  such  children,  who  in  reality 
are  still  incapable  of  either  good  or  evil,  as  sadis- 
tic or  brutal  as  it  often  happens  when  parents  or 
guardians  relate  the  histories  of  psychopaths. 
For  these  manifestations  become  psychic,  or  in 
our  sense  neurotic  only  when  they  begin  to  serve 
a  definite  end  and  are  constructed  as  an  abstrac- 
tion which  has  some  future  tendency  in  view.^ 
The  fact  that  they  are  always  created  out  of  pos- 
sibilities and  capabilities  of  experience  does  not 
justify  the  assumption  of  a  constitutional  factor. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  one  only  finds  the  character- 
trait  of  cruelty  as  a  compensatory  psychic  con- 
struction in  those  children  who,  aside  from  this, 

1  See  also  Wagner  v.  Jaureg,    "Ueber  krankhafte  Triebhand- 
lungen,"  Wiener  klin.     Wochenschrift,  1912. 

324 


CRUELTY,  CONSCIENCE,  ETC.  325 

are  forced  by  their  feeling  of  inferiority  to  an 
early  and  hasty  development  of  their  ideal  of  per- 
sonality.  The  accompanying  traits  of  obstinacy, 
rage,  sexual  precocity,  ambition,  envy,  greed, 
malice  and  delight  in  doing  harm  as  they  are  reg- 
ularly evoked  by  the  guiding  fiction,  and  which 
the  strife  and  emotional  predispositions  help  to 
form  and  mobilize,  furnish  the  highly  colored 
kaleidoscopic  picture  of  the  refractory  child. 
The  lust  for  power  of  such  children  is  regularly 
manifested  in  the  family  life  and  play,  but  most 
of  all  in  their  bearing,  attitude  and  glance.  In 
the  play  and  early  thoughts  concerning  the  choice 
of  a  vocation,  the  tendency  to  cruelty  is  often  be- 
trayed in  a  veiled  manner  and  makes  them  re- 
gard as  ideal  types,  the  hangman,  the  butcher,  the 
policeman,  the  grave  digger,  the  savage  or  coach- 
man, "because  they  can  whip  the  horses,"  or  the 
teacher,  "because  they  can  whip  the  children," 
the  physician,  "because  they  cut,"  or  the  soldier, 
"because  they  shoot,"  the  judge,  etc.^  The  spirit 
of  investigation  is  also  often  associated  with  this, 
and  the  torturing  of  animals  and  children,  specu- 
lations and  phantasies  concerning  possible  misfor- 
tunes, often  of  those  which  might  befall  near  rela- 
tives, an  interest  in  funerals  and  church-yards 
and  in  horrible  sadistic  stories,  are  begun. 

The  first  purpose  of  these  exaggerated  tenden- 

2  Adler,  "Aggressionstrieb,"  1.  c. 


326  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

cies  to  cruelty,  is  to  prevent  the  emergence  and 
the  becoming  effective  of  the  ever  present  possi- 
bihty  of  weakness  and  pity,  because  these  stand 
in  opposition  to  the  masculine  guiding  line.  The 
general  spreading  of  this  craving  to  be  manly 
which  is  thought  to  lead  to  superiority  over 
others,  is  nowhere  so  clearly  shown  as  in  the  dis- 
interested pleasure  in  injuries.  In  neurotics  this 
may  be  especially  strongly  emphasized  and  may 
be  utilized  in  the  most  unreasonable  manner  for 
the  purpose  of  exalting  the  ego-consciousness. 
La  Rochefoucauld  expresses  this  in  his  quaint 
manner  as  follows,  "There  is  something  in  the 
misfortunes  of  our  friends  which  is  not  quite  dis- 
pleasing." 

I  heard  a  patient  laugh  aloud  when  told  of  the 
JNIessina  earthquake.  He  suffered  from  severe 
masochistic  attacks.  Compulsory  laughter  often 
possessed  this  patient  when  he  was  in  the  presence 
of  a  superior  person,  his  teacher  for  instance,  or 
some  one  who  had  some  claim  of  authority  over 
him.  One  finds  in  such  patients  a  strong  in- 
clination to  dominate  over  or  torment  others,  at 
times  sadistic  phantasies,  until  one  discovers  that 
the  compulsion  to  laughter,  the  lust  for  power  and 
the  sadism  are  erected  over  the  weak  point  of  the 
feeling  of  inferiority,  in  order  to  compensate  for 
it.  Pyromania,  the  delight  in  fire-brands  and 
the  almost  irresistible  compulsion  to  think  of  fire, 


CRUELTY,  CONSCIENCE,  ETC.  327 

or  to  cry  out  "fire"  in  the  theater  or  church  seem 
to  be  referable,  according  to  certain  of  my  find- 
ings, to  defects  of  the  sensitive  bladder  or  to  eyes 
oversensitive  to  light,  or  at  any  rate  to  prepara- 
tions for  the  compensation  of  these  defects.  But 
this  guiding  line  of  masculine  cruelty  is  threat- 
ened with  great  danger  and  accident  in  a  society 
where  there  exist  ethical  imperatives,  it  can,  there- 
fore, be  only  followed  in  a  disguised  form.  Usu- 
ally one  sees  deviations  and  circuitous  paths  in 
following  which  the  sadistic  trait  seems  wholly  or 
in  part  lost.  In  this  way  the  neurotic  succeeds  in 
gaining  superiority  over  the  weak,  or  he  operates 
on  this  new  line  so  skillfully  as  to  manage  to  set 
up  an  aggression  which  enables  him  to  dominate 
and  torture  others.  In  the  compulsion  neuroses 
one  frequently  finds  that  these  patients  have 
abandoned  their  sadistic  guiding  line  and  have 
turned  to  penance  and  reassuring  measures, 
which  have  the  same  compulsory  character  and 
are  not  less  oppressive  for  the  environment  than 
were  the  previous  emotional  predispositions  of 
the  patient,  and  hence  are  fitted  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  prime  characteristics  to  render  obvious  the 
superiority  of  the  neurotic.  In  the  major  at- 
tacks of  so-called  affective  epilepsy,  of  hysteria, 
of  trigeminal  nem'algia,  of  migraine,  etc.,  the 
masculine  lust  for  power  turns  in  the  direction  of 
the  neurotic  "readiness  for  a  paroxysm,"  but  the 


328  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

helplessness  of  the  environment  and  its  suffering 
is  not  less  but  rather  greater  than  in  the  rages  and 
enmity  which  were  active  ways  of  the  neurotic. 
An  inclination  for  antivivisectionism,  vegetarian- 
ism, prevention  of  cruelty  to  animals,  charity, 
often  distinguishes  these  connoisseurs  of  the  suf- 
ferings of  others,  they  cannot  endure  to  see  a 
goose  bleed,  but  clap  their  hands  gleefully  when 
their  opponent  leaves  the  Exchange  a  bankrupt. 
Their  inclination  to  sectarianism  forms  an  inimi- 
cal antisocial  trait,  as  does  their  severe  criticism 
of  the  valuation  of  others  which  they  exhibit  be- 
fore they  even  form  an  opinion  of  their  own. 
Tolerance  is  unknown  to  them,  unless  they  cry 
out  for  it  for  themselves. 

If  I  sketch  here  traits  which  are  to  be  en- 
countered on  all  sides,  they  are  nevertheless  traits 
of  a  very  prevalent  neuroticism  and  signs  of  a 
deeply  grounded  uncertainty.  They  are  by  no 
means  inherent  in  human  nature,  but  are  rather 
unsuccessful  forms  of  the  masculine  protest  which 
failed  to  bring  assurance  to  the  ego-consciousness. 
Should  failure  result  in  following  the  main  guid- 
ing line,  neurotic  circuitous  ways  are  entered 
upon  and  the  "outbreak"  of  the  neurosis  or  psy- 
chosis follows  as  a  result  of  a  change  of  form  and 
accentuation  of  the  guiding  fiction. 

I  must  also  disagree  with  the  theory  of  con- 
genital  criminality   of   children   and   criminals 


CRUELTY,  CONSCIENCE,  ETC.  329 

promulgated  by  Lombroso  and  Ferrari,  as  well  as 
with  Stekel's  theory  of  the  universal  criminality 
of  neurotics.  (Aggressionstrieb,  1.  c).  They 
are  nothing  but  forms  of  the  aggressive  impulse 
become  accentuated  through  the  feeling  of  inferi- 
ority, and  which  makes  use  of  the  masculine  guid- 
ing line.  The  transformation  into  a  clearly  ob- 
vious neurosis  follows  the  abandonment  of  this 
straightforward  aggression.  Where  the  fear  of 
a  decision  is  absent,  an  early  result  of  the  secu- 
rity-giving neurosis,  and  where  there  develops  a 
strong  tendency  to  deprive  others  of  life,  honor 
and  property,  criminality  is  the  result.^ 

In  the  developed  neurosis,  on  the  other  hand, 
one  finds  memory-traces  of  cruelty,  criminality  as 
well  as  those  of  sexuality  purposefully  exagger- 
ated, falsely  grouped  and  retained.  Through 
the  imagining  of  an  accentuated  conscience  and 
exaggerated  feeling  of  guilt,  the  masculine  pro- 
test is  diverted  from  the  straight  path  of  aggres- 
sion and  becomes  inclined  towards  routes  of  soft- 
heartedness.  It  is  only  in  the  affect  which  occa- 
sionally comes  to  the  surface,  in  the  analysis  of 
the  seizures,  in  the  traits  of  character  which  be- 
come manifest  now  and  then  as  is  the  case  fre- 
quently at  the  onset  of  a  psychosis  and  the  nature 
of  the  goal  of  the  neurotic  subterfuges  and  traits 

8  A.  Jassny,  "Dass  Weib  ais  Verbrecher,"  Arch.  f.  Kriminal- 
psych.,  1911,  H.  19. 


330  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  character  which  have  become  diverted  from  the 
straight  course,  in  the  fact  that  a  tyranny  is 
erected  in  spite  of  all  defeats,  in  the  torture  of 
others  through  self-torture,  and  finally  in  the  in- 
termixture of  occasionally  emerging  original  and 
direct  traits  of  aggression,  that  one  discovers  the 
fact  that  the  old  over-tense  goal  still  exists  and 
that  a  change  in  the  form  of  the  fiction  has  only 
diverted  the  direction  of  the  original  tendency 
into  other,  often  apparently  opposite  channels. 

Thus  it  happens  that  following  a  decidedly  ag- 
gressive period,  the  greedy,  brutal  or  violent 
traits  of  the  psychopath,  in  anticipation  of  a  de- 
feat or  after  such  has  actually  been  experienced, 
may  be  made  to  approach  more  closely  or  even 
too  eagerly  general  moral  ideals,  through  the  con- 
struction of  a  fictitious  factor,  "conscience,"  in  the 
same  manner  as  the  path  of  egocentric  evil  desire 
was  entered  upon  from  a  feeling  of  inferiority. 
"Then  I  am  destined  to  be  bad,"  in  this  and  simi- 
lar ways  the  fictitious  life-plan  of  many  neurotics 
is  unconscioush'  formed,  until  a  glance  into  the 
abyss  tears  the  giddy  subject  from  his  perilous  po- 
sition and  forces  him  to  seek  a  stronger  security 
than  is  actually  needed.  Conscience  develops  out 
of  the  simpler  forms  of  prevision  and  self-evalu- 
ation under  the  pressure  of  the  craving  for  se- 
curity, is  endowed  with  the  attributes  of  power 
and  raised  to  a  divinity,  so  that  the  individual  may 


CRUELTY,  COXSCIENXE,  ETC.  331 

construct  his  ideal  without  objection  from  any 
side,  so  that  he  may  be  able  better  to  orient  him- 
self in  the  uncertainty  of  events  and  have  his 
choice  in  attacks  and  methods  of  combat  to  which 
his  will  to  power  guides  him. 

But  the  neurotic  brings  about  a  reconstruction 
of  his  traits  of  character  even  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  being  enabled  to  initiate  the  struggle  to 
better  advantage.  Such  is  the  case  when  he 
ascribes  to  the  sexual  partner  of  whom  he  stands 
in  fear,  traits  of  an  egotistic,  cruel  and  deceptive 
nature.  He  is  then  likely  to  hunt  out  and  exag- 
gerate from  his  memories  and  emotions,  those 
which  confirm  his  own  character  as  affectionate, 
mild  and  open.  For  the  purpose  of  proving 
these  characteristics  he  will  often  act  as  though' 
his  virtues  had  the  reality  of  innate  and  indestruc- 
tible qualities. 

One  important  question  must  still  be  touched 
upon.  Xearly  all  of  our  neurotic  patients  come 
to  us  in  the  "stadium  of  virtue,"  after  having  ex- 
perienced a  defeat,  and  we  must  therefore  expect 
to  discover  their  masculine  protest  less  in  direct 
traits  of  character  and  emotional  predispositions 
than  in  neurotic  circuitous  ways,  accentuated  se- 
curity devices,  which  may  be  detected  only  with 
difficulty  tlirough  the  analysis  of  their  dreams  and 
symptoms.  One  will  discover  that  the  infantile, 
fictive  guiding  line  has  only  become  more  effec- 


SS2  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

tive,  and  in  so  far  as  it  concerns  the  cases  just 
spoken  of,  that  their  neurotic  symptoms  lead  to 
a  more  intense  degradation  of  others  than  did 
their  original  cruelty  and  desire  to  torture.  For 
all  these  guiding  lines  are  tensely  stretched  be- 
tween the  insecurity  of  the  constitutionally  or 
subjectively  defective  individual  and  his  unattain- 
able ego-ideal.  However  far  back  into  childhood 
sadism,  perversions  of  various  sorts,  sexual-libido, 
in  short  the  masculine  protest  may  extend,  they 
are  always  constructed  according  to  a  life-plan 
and  reveal  their  dependence  thereon.  The  liber- 
ation of  the  sadism  from  the  neurotic  predisposi- 
tion, and  in  the  sense  of  Freud,  from  the  uncon- 
scious and  from  repression,  is  to  be  likened  to  a 
carrying  back  of  the  neurosis  to  an  earlier  sta- 
dium, to  a  time  before  the  defeat.  Freud's  scien- 
tific work,  important  and  full  of  results  as  it  was 
for  the  understanding  of  the  neurosis,  did  not  give 
a  correct  picture  of  the  neurotic  psyche.  The 
neurotic  predispositions  of  heightened  affectivity, 
the  exaggerated  aggressiveness,  the  hypersensi- 
bility,  and  the  direct,  compensatory  character- 
peculiarities  require  a  liberation  from  their  over- 
tense  state ;  as  do  also  the  inclinations  to  neurotic 
perversions  which  are  often  constructed  at  a  very 
early  age,  and  which  are  to  come  to  the  aid  of  the 
general  fear  of  decisions  through  a  compromise 
formation.     For  this  reason  the  effort  should  be 


CRUELTY,  CONSCIENCE,  ETC.  333 

made  to  conquer  this  feeling  of  inferiority  and  the 
tendency  to  disparage  which  results  therefrom, 
these  two  important  poles  of  every  neurotic  state, 
by  means  of  insight  and  contemplation  on  the 
part  of  the  patient,  for  they  like  their  sexual  anal- 
ogies, (sadism,  masochism,  fetichism,  homosex- 
uality, incest-phantasies,  apparent  heightening  or 
weakening  of  the  sexual  impulse),  already  form 
the  foundation  of  the  neurosis. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  ANTITHESIS  ABOVE-BENEATH,  CHOICE  OF  A 
PROFESSION,  SOMNAMBULISM,  ANTITHESIS  IN 
THOUGHT,  ELEVATION  OF  THE  PERSONALITY 
THROUGH  THE  DISPARAGEMENT  OF  OTHERS, 
JEALOUSY,  NEUROTIC  AUXILIARIES,  AUTHOR- 
ITATIVENESS,  THINKING  IN  ANTITHESES  AND 
THE  MASCULINE  PROTEST,  DILATORY  ATTI- 
TUDE AND  MARRIAGE,  THE  TENDENCY  UP- 
WARD AS  A  SYMBOL  OF  LIFE,  COMPULSION  TO 
MASTURBATION,  THE  NEUROTIC  STRIVING  FOR 
KNOWLEDGE 

The  abstraction  of  the  concept,  "above-be- 
neath," obviously  plays  an  extremely  important 
role  in  the  civilization  of  mankind,  and  is  prob- 
ably even  connected  with  the  beginning  of  the  up- 
right carriage  of  human  beings.  As  every  child 
repeats  this  process  in  the  course  of  his  develop- 
ment when  he  arises  from  the  floor  and  as  training 
also  teaches  him  a  disgust  for  clinging  to  the  floor 
and  creeping  on  it  from  hygienic  reasons,  for  be- 
ing "down" ;  this  higher  development  in  childhood 
may  contribute  not  a  little  to  the  tendency  to 
value  "up"  more  highly;  a  certain  proof  is  to  be 

334 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       335 

found  in  the  conduct  of  small  children  who  throw 
themselves  on  the  floor  angrily  and  thus  try  to 
make  themselves  dirty  in  order  to  attract  the  at- 
tention of  their  parents,  but  betray  thereby  that 
the  idea  of  "being  down"  as  a  fiction  of  what  is 
forbidden,  dirty,  sinful,  is  developing  in  them. 
In  this  psychic  gesture  of  small  children  may  also 
be  detected  the  model  for  strongly  developed  later 
neurotic  traits. 

Further  notions  may  be  gathered  from  the  im- 
pressions of  heavenly  bodies,  as  may  be  seen  from 
a  psychological  understanding  of  the  various  re- 
ligions and  of  civilization.  The  aboriginal  races, 
like  the  child,  regarded  the  sun,  the  day,  joy,  ele- 
vation, being  "up,"  as  resembling  each  other  and 
frequently  associated  "being  down"  with  sin, 
death,  dirt,  sickness  and  night. 

The  antithesis  of  "up-down"  is  not  less  distinct 
than  in  ancient  religions.  From  a  work  by  K. 
Th.  Preuss  on  "Die  Feuergotter  als  Ausgang- 
spunkt  zum  Verstandniss  der  Mexicanischen  Re- 
ligion," Mitteilungen  der  Anthropologischen 
Gesellschaft  in  Wien,  1903,  we  are  able  to  infer 
the  deeply  rooted  character  of  this  antithesis  and 
the  association  of  "up-down."  The  fire  god  is 
also  the  god  of  the  dead  who  live  with  him  at  the 
place  of  descent. 

Overturned  vessels,  people  who  fell,  were  re- 
garded as  presentations  of  "up-downs,"  that  is  to 


336  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

say,  of  falling  into  the  realm  of  the  dead,  and 
thoughts  of  preservation  and  destructive  activities 
were  given  this  form  of  spatial  antithesis/ 

Further,  sensations  and  impressions  from 
childhood  tend  to  give  form  to  the  spatial  notion 
of  "up-down"  and  to  define  the  contrast  more 
sharply.  Falling,  falling  down,  is  painful,  blam- 
able,  dishonorable,  at  times,  punishable.  Not 
rarely  it  is  the  result  of  inattention,  lack  of  fore- 
sight and  the  child  may  therefore  assume  these 
sensory  traces  as  an  admonition,  so  that  being 
*'down"  may  be  felt  as  a  forceful  expression  for 
*'fallen,"  for  inattention,  for  unskillfulness,  for 
defeat,  not  without  releasing  or  at  least  stimulat- 
ing the  protest  which  is  directed  against  the  ap- 
proaching feeling  of  inferiority.  In  this  cate- 
gory of  "down-up,"  one  of  which  cannot  be 
thought  of  without  the  other,  is  further  found 
intermingled  trains  of  thought  (in  both  neurotics 
and  normal  persons),  which  express  the  anti- 
theses of  conquest  and  defeat,  of  triumph  and  in- 
feriority. In  individual  cases  upon  anah^sis 
memory  traces  emerge  of  riding,  swimming,  fly- 
ing, mountain  climbing,  climbing  up  and  of 
climbing  staircases,  the  antitheses  of  which  reveal 
themselves  as  carrying  a  rider,  incubus,  sinking 
in  water,  falling  down,  tumbling  down,  a  check 

1 1  am  especially  indebted  to  Prof.  Dr.  S.  Oppenheim  for  some 
important  historical  data  for  my  work. 


1 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       337 

in  an  upward  or  forward  movement.  The  more 
abstract  and  figurative  the  memory  is  in  dreams, 
in  hallucinations,  in  separate  neurotic  symptoms, 
the  more  perceptible  are  the  transitions  which 
show  a  sexual  factor.  In  this  connection  the 
masculine  principle  is  only  represented  by  the 
feeling  of  greater  power,  as  being  "up,"  and  the 
feminine  by  the  feeling  of  being  "down."  It  is 
easy  to  see  that  scuffling  and  its  results  support 
this  valuation. 

In  the  games  of  children  which  are  prepara- 
tory for  the  conflicts  of  life  (Karl  Groos)  this 
striving  "upwards"  is  regularly  found.  Also  in 
the  thoughts  of  children  concerning  a  vocation. 
In  the  progress  of  the  psychic  development  real- 
ity is  seen  working  as  a  brake,  so  that  the  ab- 
straction "upwards"  has  a  tendency  to  assume  a 
concrete  form  in  some.  Very  often  in  this  con- 
nection caution  in  the  form  of  fear  of  being  in 
elevated  positions  is  at  work  and  changes  the 
wish  to  be  a  roof  maker  into  that  of  being  a  mas- 
ter builder,  makes  of  the  aviator  a  builder  of 
flying  machines,  changes  the  wish  of  the  little  girl 
to  be  like  her  father  into  the  more  attainable  wish 
of  being  able  to  command  like  her  mother. 

The  striving  for  security  and  the  masculine 
protest  make  the  greatest  possible  use  of  the  re- 
sulting guiding  lines  of  the  "will  to  be  up." 
Under  the  pressure  of  the  fiction  the  neurotic  is 


338  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

sometimes  forced  to  decisions,  to  conflict  and 
strife,  to  passionate  haste,  sometimes  to  cautious, 
hesitating,  doubting  behavior.  Thus  he  is  placed 
in  a  position  to  make  an  estimate  of  his  worth  in 
life  and  that  through  instances  which  escape  the 
notice  of  others.  He  must  scent  out,  hold  fast, 
exaggerate  or  arrange  situations  which  seem  to 
us  of  very  little  value.  Let  us  follow  this  con- 
duct in  detail. 

A  girl,  25  years  old,  came  to  us  with  complaints 
of  frequent  headache,  emotional  attacks,  disincli- 
nation-for  life  and  work.  Traces  of  rickets  were 
perceptible.  The  history  of  childhood  revealed 
an  extreme  feeling  of  inferiority  which  was  kept 
at  a  strained  tension  because  of  the  mother's  pref- 
erence for  a  younger  brother  and  because  of  his 
intellectual  superiority.  The  most  cherished 
wish  of  this  patient  had  always  been  to  be  big, 
very  wise,  and  a  man.  She  took  the  preparatory 
attitudes  for  the  attainment  of  this  masculine 
ego-consciousness  as  far  as  was  possible  from  her 
father.  When  this  was  not  possible  for  her,  a 
small,  stupid  girl,  she  had  secured  the  imaginary 
ego-consciousness  through  emotional  expedients 
of  rage  and  anger  against  her  relatives  and  espe- 
cially in  obstinacy  toward  her  mother,  in  the 
simulation  of  stupidity,  of  awkwardness  and  sick- 
ness, and  finally  in  the  arrangement  of  laziness. 
I  omit  here  the  lines  constructed  by  her  of  man- 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       339 

liness,  of  malice,  of  obstinacy,  and  refrain  also 
from  analyzing  her  overweening  ambition,  her 
inclination  to  lying  and  ostentation,  and  will  con- 
tent myself  with  showing  how  all  these  habits  are 
combined  in  the  impulse  to  be  "up"  and  serve 
the  tendency  to  depreciate  others.  For  this  pur- 
pose I  will  refer  to  one  of  her  dreams,  which  con- 
tains a  modest  reference  to  the  psychology  of 
somnambulism.     The  dream  is  as  follows: 

"I  became  a  sleepwalker  and  climbed  onto  the 
head  of  everybody." 

The  patient  had  heard  sleepwalkers  spoken  of 
a  few  days  previous  to  this  dream.  In  her  at- 
tempt at  explanation  of  this  dream  a  series  of 
ambitious  thoughts  emerged  which  takes  the 
form  among  others  of  a  sexual  picture  of  domi- 
nation over  her  future  husband.  She  remem- 
bered dreams  of  earlier  times  which  represented 
her  as  riding  on  a  man,  on  a  horse.^  I  have 
never  treated  a  real  sleepwalker,  but  one  finds 
this  neurotic  symptom  sometimes  indicated  in  on- 
sets. It  is  manifested  as  is  the  dream  of  flying, 
of  climbing  stairs,  etc.,  as  a  dynamic  expression 
of  the  "will  to  be  up"  in  the  sense  of  the  manly 

2  Women  riding  on  a  man  one  frequently  finds  as  the  subject  of 
paintings.  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  Burgkmair,  Hans  Baldung, 
Grien,  Dijrer,  and  to  tell  of  the  many  prints  which  show  Alex- 
ander's paramours  riding  on  Aristotle. 


3i0  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

aggression.  In  a  patient  who  showed  strong 
masochistic  traits,  I  once  discovered  strenuous 
attempts  to  reach  the  ceihng  of  the  room  by  put- 
ting his  legs  out  on  the  wall  during  the  night. 
The  interpretation  showed  that  the  patient  res- 
cued himself  from  a  real  or  an  imagined  situ- 
ation which  was  regarded  as  feminine  by  turning 
around  to  the  masculine  protest  and  at  the  same 
time  gave  expression  to  this  in  a  symbohc  modus 
dicendi  through  his  striving  upwards. 

The  second  thought  of  the  dream,  "I  climbed 
onto  the  heads  of  everybody,"  reveals  the  same 
meaning.  The  patient  makes  use  here  of  a  form 
of  speech  to  express  that  she  is  superior  to  all 
others.  Her  striving  upwards  is  only  to  be  un- 
derstood dialectically  in  an  antithesis,  for  the 
thoughts  of  insecure  neurotics  generally  move  in 
strongly  antithetical  directions,  in  an  "either-or," 
in  an  abstraction  understood  according  to  the 
scheme  of  the  opposites,  masculine-feminine. 
The  innumerable  middle  ways  are  not  chosen  be- 
cause the  two  neurotic  poles,  the  feeling  of  infe- 
riority on  the  one  hand  and  the  overtense  ego- 
consciousness  on  the  other  only  permit  the 
antithetical  values  to  reach  consciousness.^ 

3  That  the  tentative,  insecurely  begun,  beginnings  in  philosophy 
have  likewise  hypotasized  this  antithetical  mode  of  thinking  we 
have  already  emphasized. 

Karl  Joel  speaks  of  this  problem  in  the  "Geschichte  der  Zahl- 
prinzipien  in  der  griechischen  Philosophic"   (Zeitschr.  f.  Philoso- 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       S41 

The  train  of  thought  of  this  dream  permits  us 
to  divine  the  neurotic  predispositions  of  the  pa- 
tient. In  reahty  her  mascuHne  protest,  her  in- 
chnation  to  behttle  others,  her  ambition,  her 
sensitiveness,  defiance,  unyieldingness,  obstinacy, 
is  sufficiently  remarkable.  The  psychic  signifi- 
cance of  her  headache  is  revealed  in  this  dream. 
Previous  analysis  showed  in  fact  that  the  symp- 
tom always  made  its  appearance  when  there  was 
a  feeling  of  defeat,  of  belittlement,  of  emascula- 
tion— to  speak  in  the  words  of  the  dream,  when 
one  "mounted  her  head."  In  the  phases  of  the 
headache,  therefore,  through  the  construction  of 
these  "expedients  of  pain"  with  consequent  hal- 
lucinations of  pain  she  strove  to  dominate  all 
persons,  especially  her  mother,  and  was  able  to 
enhance  her  ego-consciousness  thereby  in  the 
same  manner  as  she  was  able  to  do  it  through  de- 
fiance, laziness,  and  obstinacy,  only  to  a  greater 
degree,  in  short,  had  thus  mounted  on  the  heads 
of  others. 

In  children  the  tendency  to  be  up  is  unmis- 
takable and  coincides  with  the  wish  to  be  big. 
They  wish  to  be  lifted  up  and  like  to  climb  on 
sofas,  tables,  boxes,  and  usually  connect  with 
this  striving  the  idea  of  showing  themselves  un- 

phie  und  philos.  Kritik.  Bd.  97),  and  states  in  this  study,  "The 
real  root  of  'antithesis'  lies  in  the  instinctive,  peculiar  fixity  of 
thought  which  only  recognizes  absolutes." 


342  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

conquerably  courageous,  manly.  How  closely 
bordering  on  this  is  the  tendency  to  depreciate 
others  is  shown  by  their  joy  when  they  succeed 
in  being  "bigger"  than  grown  people.  The 
heightening  of  the  aggressive  tendency  is  mani- 
fested in  children  who  show  neurotic  symptoms 
at  an  early  age  by  this  exhibition.  Thus  it  some- 
times happens  that  children  in  the  consulting 
room  of  the  physician  constantly  climb  on  tables 
and  benches  and  thus  reveal  their  contempt. 

The  danger  of  falling,  of  accidents  in  striving 
upwards  as  well  as  the  customary  training  to 
cowardice,  force  the  majority  of  children  to  a 
change  of  form  of  the  guiding  line,  or  to  neu- 
rotic, circuitous  ways,  whereby  the  fear  of  ele- 
vated positions  and  heights  opposes  itself  as  an 
admonition  usually  in  a  symbolical  form  to  un- 
dertakings and  ventures  of  all  sorts,  and  thus 
becomes  the  foundation  of  a  predisposition  which 
has  the  appearance  of  a  neurotic  check  on  aggres- 
sion. At  times  the  desire  to  be  up  is  transposed 
for  the  most  part  to  a  tendency  to  depreciate 
others.  The  tendency  of  those  suffering  from 
dementia  prsecox  to  change  the  furniture  stands 
regularly  in  such  close  connection  with  the  de- 
preciation of  the  surroundings  that  the  suspicion 
is  justified,  that  this  is  one  of  the  fictitious,  ab- 
stract, circuitous  ways  by  which  the  psychotic 
enhances    his    ego-consciousness.     In    a    trans- 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       343 

ferred  form  this  placing  of  others  in  an  inferior 
position  is  expressed  in  the  tendency  to  calumny, 
especially,  however,  in  neurotic  jealousy  and  de- 
lirium of  jealousy.  I  discovered  further  an  in- 
teresting sort  of  derogation  in  nervous  subjects 
in  their  care,  their  anxious  behavior,  in  their  fears 
for  the  fate  of  other  people.  They  act  as  if 
others  were  incapable  of  caring  for  themselves 
without  their  help.  They  are  constantly  giving 
advice,  wish  to  do  everything  themselves,  are  al- 
ways finding  new  dangers  and  are  never  con- 
tented until  others  confide  themselves  entirely  to 
their  care.  Neurotic  parents  are  thus  the  cause 
of  much  harm,  and  in  love  and  marriage  much 
friction  is  caused  in  this  manner.  One  of  mj'^  pa- 
tients, who  was  run  over  twice  in  his  childhood, 
associated  his  feeling  of  injured  personality  with 
this  memory  and  whenever  he  crossed  a  street 
with  another  person  he  led  that  person  anxiously 
over  by  the  arm  as  though  without  his  help  his 
companion  could  not  have  crossed.  Many  per- 
sons are  filled  with  fears  when  their  relatives 
travel  by  rail,  go  swimming  or  canoeing,  give 
their  nurses  constant  instructions  and  continue 
their  tendency  to  depreciation  in  exaggerated 
criticisms  and  corrections.  In  schools  and  in 
offices  this  nagging  depreciation  is  always  found 
in  neurotic  teachers  and  superiors.  In  the  prac- 
tice of  psychotherapy  it  is  one  of  the  main  re- 


341.  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

quirements  to  obviate  predispositions  of  this  sort, 
even  when  the  patient  provokes  them.  This  re- 
quirement often  amounts  to  a  renunciation  of  au- 
thority. Every  one  who  has  become  acquainted 
with  the  hypersensitiveness  of  neurotic  subjects 
knows  with  what  shght  cause  they  feel  themselves 
to  be  undervalued.  One  of  my  patients  who  suf- 
fered from  hystero-epilepsy  and  always  con- 
ducted himself  as  if  he  wished  to  place  himself  in 
an  entirely  subordinate  position  fell  on  one  oc- 
casion unconscious  before  my  door.  In  such 
"accidents"  the  tendency  to  undervaluation  is 
clearly  recognizable.  While  still  in  a  confused 
condition  he  addressed  me  as  "Teacher,"  and 
stammered  that  he  would  bring  a  note.  After 
the  attack  he  told  me  that  he  had  come  unwill- 
ingly on  that  occasion.  The  analysis  showed 
that  he  had  come  to  regard  me  as  a  teacher  in 
order  to  obtain  the  distance  necessary  for  the  con- 
flict, in  order  to  be  able  to  act  as  though  he  were 
obliged  to  come  to  the  school  and  to  bring  a  writ- 
ten excuse  for  his  absence.  After  he  had  placed 
himself  as  far  as  his  feelings  were  concerned  in 
this  situation  of  inferiority  he  could  allow  the 
compensatory  expedients  derived  therefrom  to 
come  into  play  in  order  to  belittle  me. 

A  girl  20  years  old  suffered  from  the  compul- 
sory idea  that  she  could  not  ride  in  a  street-car 
because  when  she  got  in  the  thought  always 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       345 

emerged  that  a  man  might  get  out  at  the  same 
time  and  fall  under  the  wheels.  Analysis  showed 
that  this  compulsory  neurosis  represented  the 
masculine  protest  of  the  patient  in  the  figure  of 
being  "above"  corresponding  with  which  the  man 
must  be  "under,"  deprived  of  value,  and  should 
bear  the  injuries  which  he  imposes  on  women. 
In  addition  the  exaggerated  striving  for  security 
constructed  the  protection  of  anxiety  which  was 
intended  to  satisfy  further  the  fear  of  the  male. 
Even  then  when  her  superiority  was  assured  she 
could  not  bring  herself  to  decide  on  marriage, 
for  her  future  husband  would  have  a  hard  time 
with  her — from  this  point  of  view  one  is  able  to 
understand  the  often  incomprehensible  striving 
of  many  neurotic  girls  and  women  to  exact  from 
their  partners  the  greatest  sacrifices  and  put  them 
to  the  most  severe  tests,  in  so  far  as  they  hope  to 
attain  thereby  an  enhancement  of  their  ego-con- 
sciousness to  the  point  of  an  appearance  of  man- 
liness. 

Thinking  in  crude  antitheses  is  therefore  in 
itself  a  sign  of  uncertainty  and  adheres  to  the 
sole  genuine  antithesis,  that  between  male  and 
female.  In  this  a  judgment  of  worth  is  already 
given,  which  infuses  itself  unnoticed  in  every 
"antithesis"  (Joel)  because  this  antithesis  is  al- 
ways made  in  the  figure  of  a  dissection  of  the 
hermaphroditic  form  into  a  male  and  female  half. 


3^6  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Plato  has  perhaps  expressed  this  idea  most 
purely.  And  human  perception  was  unable  until 
the  time  of  Kant  to  disentangle  itself  from  this 
self-made  fiction.  But  the  neurotically  disposed 
child  adheres  to  the  oppositeness  of  the  sexes  and 
to  the  higher  valuation  of  the  male  principle 
therewith  connected  in  order  to  escape  from  un- 
certainty and  in  order  to  find  a  guiding  line  for 
his  idea  of  egoistic  worth.  Thus  it  happens  that 
this  guiding  fiction  contains  a  manly  aspect,  and 
that  in  all  the  experiences  and  strivings  of  neu- 
rotic individuals  the  masculine  protest  is  revealed 
as  the  ordering  principle  and  motive  force.  The 
antithesis  of  the  sexes  is  admirably  expressed  in 
the  above  given  symbol  of  the  spatial  opposites  of 
"up-down."  And  thus  it  becomes  comprehensi- 
ble that  in  every  one  of  our  psychological  analyses 
this  expression  of  a  sharp  antithetical  schema 
must  somehow  or  other  come  to  light.  It  is  still 
an  open  question  whether  reenforcements  of  the 
antithesis  have  been  acquired  from  the  events  of 
early  childhood  and  the  resulting  impressions, 
from  the  observations  of  sexual  relations  in  hu- 
man beings  and  animals,  or  whether  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  higher  position  of  the  male  has 
been  fixed  by  the  normal  situations  of  sexual  re- 
lations. 

The  "will  to  be  above"  of  the  neurotic  woman 
is  produced  by  her  manly  guiding  idea  and  repre- 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       347 

sents  an  attempt  to  identify  herself  with  the  man. 
The  importunity  and  rigidity  witli  which  this 
takes  place  even  in  neurotic,  circuitous  ways  testi- 
fies to  the  original  uncertainty  and  fear  of  being 
"below,"  undervalued,  female.  Thus  the  tran- 
scendental egoistic  idea  attains  its  powerful 
dominancy  because  it  promises  compensation,  the 
overcoming  of  the  feeling  of  inferiority,  in  the 
opposite  direction.  Every  gesture  then  says,  "I 
will  be  above,  I  will  be  a  man  because  I  am  afraid 
as  a  woman  of  being  oppressed  and  misused." 
Ambition  and  envy  are  hereby  strengthened  and 
an  unusually  lively  mistrust  is  awakened  against 
every  possibility  of  belittlement.  Where  there 
is  real  undervaluation,  however,  the  masculine 
protest  flashes  forth  and  leads  from  slight  and 
often  from  no  cause  to  the  well  known,  unpleas- 
ant frictions  of  the  neurotic  individual  with  his 
environment,  in  which  the  principal  weapons  of 
attack  used  to  confu*m  the  feeling  of  power  are 
disputatiousness,  love  for  justice,  obstinate  ad- 
herence to  opinion  and  trust  in  penetration. 
And  in  this  connection  the  tendency  to  "look  be- 
neath" will  never  be  absent,  especially  in  times 
of  uncertainty,  the  acute  perception  of  affronts, 
neglects,  undervaluations,  and  further  than  this 
arrangements  of  depression,  anxiety,  remorse, 
feeling  of  guilt  and  pangs  of  conscience. 
Stronger  measures  for  security  are  applied  and 


348  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

new  neurotic  symptoms  and  deviations  are  con- 
structed, the  neurotic  traits  of  character  become 
more  deeply  seated  and  more  abstract  and  the 
fully  developed  picture  of  the  neurosis  arises."* 
Thus  the  revolt  for  attaining  a  heightened  ego- 
consciousness  is  fairly  contrived,  the  introduction 
thereof  is  formed  by  the  disease  itself  and  by  the 
predispositions  to  disease  which  in  some  way  or 
other  are  made  use  of  as  means  for  attaining 
power  in  the  environment. 

A  patient,  21  years  old,  came  under  treatment 
because  of  extreme  depression,  loss  of  sleep  and 
compulsory  thoughts.  It  was  ascertained  that 
she  had  always  had  neurotic  traits  of  character. 

*  While  writing  this  book  I  discovered  in  Alfred  v.  Berger's 
"Hofrat  Eysenhardt"  an  excellent  example  of  the  type  just  de- 
scribed in  whom  the  striving  to  be  above  was  especially  well 
marked  and  whose  lectures  I  would  recommend  to  every  psycho- 
therapeutist.  One  will  find  in  this  description  a  repetition  of  all 
we  have  said  concerning  this  type  of  individual  from  a  poet's 
standpoint.  The  all  too  powerful  elan  of  the  father,  the  feeling 
of  inferiority  of  the  boy  along  with  the  compensatory  masculine 
protest.  Tlie  accentuation  of  sexual  desire,  of  the  will  to  power, 
the  preparation  for  the  patricide,  fetichism,  contentious  tendency, 
the  exaggerated  assurance  in  the  case  of  threatening  defeat.  The 
construction  of  remorse,  self-reproach,  hallucinations,  and  com- 
pulsory ideas  as  a  revengeful  annihilation  of  the  authority  of  the 
State.  The  loss  of  a  tooth  and  the  exaggerated  fear  of  woman  as 
the  result  of  a  further  accentuated  masculine  protest,  and  along 
with  this  the  repeated  arrangement  of  an  exaggerated  sexual  desire, 
all  of  which  is  very  impressive  and  obvious,  a  description  of  the 
neurotic  subterfuge  which  reminds  one  of  Dostoyeff sky's  descrip- 
tions and  which  requires  no  further  elucidation. 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       349 

The  compulsory  neurosis  broke  out  as  her  rela- 
tions with  a  man  whom  she  wanted  to  marry  be- 
came serious.  The  typical  pathogenic  situation 
brings  the  neurotic  "no"  to  hght,  and  while  the 
patient  was  making  her  preparations  for  mar- 
riage, and  did  not  hesitate  with  the  affirmative 
answer,  she  arranged  for  the  neurosis  and  con- 
ducted herself  as  if  she  did  not  wish  to  marry. 
In  all  these  very  numerous  cases  the  next  step 
is  a  condition  which  therefore  takes  the  form,  "If 
I  were  well,  if  I  should  overcome  my  present 
condition,"  etc.  (in  men,  often:  "If  I  were  po- 
tent"), "I  would  marry."  By  this  condition, 
which  is  equivalent  to  a  vacillation,  a  doubt,  to  a 
special  attitude  of  caution,  the  patient  escapes  all 
responsibility,  has  drawn  the  bolt  in  secret  until 
something  further  happens,  but  may  act  as  if  he 
wishes  to  open  the  door.  The  traits  of  mistrust, 
of  disputatiousness,  of  tyranny,  and  of  wishing 
to  be  "above"  are  clearly  revealed  in  the  analysis, 
and  one  can  easily  comprehend  that  the  fear  of 
not  being  equal  to  the  partner,  the  menace  of 
feeling  another  superior  in  love  or  marriage  ne- 
cessitates the  secret  retreat  and  constructs  the 
neurotic  symptom.  'Not  rarely  one  finds  a  pur- 
poseful valuation  of  the  person's  own  sexuality 
from  which  without  proof  or  with  the  assistance 
of  memories  which  every  one  has  at  command, 


S50  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

or  by  evoking  unconscious  falsifications  the  im- 
pression is  sought  that  it  is  too  little  or  too  great 
to  permit  a  marriage  to  be  ventured  on. 

The  further  communication  of  the  patient  ex- 
plained that  she  could  undertake  nothing  be- 
cause whenever  she  began  anything  the  thought 
emerged  that  it  was  useless  because  every  one 
must  die.  As  one  sees,  a  nonsensical  thought, 
which  at  the  same  time  has  sense,  but  above  all 
brings  time  and  development  to  a  standstill  and 
renders  the  entrance  of  the  patient  upon  mar- 
riage impossible.  In  accordance  with  this  the 
conviction  that  the  patient  only  came  to  the  phy- 
sician because  she  was  forced  to,  that  she  had  no 
hope  of  cure  and  only  desired  proof  of  her  incura- 
bility followed  as  a  matter  of  course.  One  of 
her  dreams  showed  much  of  this  constellation. 
It  was  as  follows: 

"A  physician  came  to  me  who  said  I  should 
jump  and  sing  when  thoughts  of  death  came  to 
me,  then  the  thoughts  would  vanish.  Then  a 
child  (hesitatingly) ,  a  large  one  is  brought.  It 
had  pain  and  cried.  It  was  given  medicine  so 
that  it  should  become  quiet  and  sleep f* 

The  physician  in  the  dream  had  once  treated 
her  as  a  child  when  she  had  scarlet  fever.  In 
the  dream  he  used  the  words  which  she  during  her 
present  illness  had  constantly  heard  from  her 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       351 

relatives  and  from  physicians.  He  gives  her  ad- 
vice of  a  kind  which  amounts  to  nothing.  These 
thoughts  are  aimed  at  me  and  express  the  con- 
viction that  all  my  measures  will  be  useless.  Of 
course  this  dream  was  di'eamed  during  a  night 
when  she  slept — for  the  first  time  after  a  period 
of  insomnia.  As  the  patient,  however,  saw  in 
this  fact  a  partial  success  of  the  treatment  she 
realized  with  strong  aggression  my  measures  too 
were  useless.  The  hesitation  in  emphasizing  the 
"largeness"  of  the  child  shows  on  what  the 
thoughts  of  the  dreamer  are  dwelling,  on  a  small, 
a  newborn  child.  The  expression,  "a  child  is 
brought"  (supply:  into  the  world)  is  taken  from 
the  idea  of  giving  birth  and  coincides  with  this 
in  the  outlined  representation  of  the  dream.  The 
powder  which  is  given  to  the  child  is  the  sleeping 
powder  of  the  patient  in  a  former  treatment,  an 
indication  that  pains  also  belong  to  the  patient, 
to  giving  birth.  In  other  words  the  patient  here 
expresses :  I  cannot  sleep  because  I  think  of  giv- 
ing birth  with  its  pains.  Giving  birth,  pains, 
dying,  in  these  she  sees  her  fate  and  hence 
she  thinks  of  dying  in  order  to  avoid  giving 
birth. 

The  exaggerated  security  against  childbirth  is 
a  change  of  form  and  intensity  of  her  masculine 
protest.  In  order  to  secure  herself  against  the 
feminine  role  she  enters  upon  the  neurotic  devi- 


352  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

ation,  fixes  her  thought  upon  an  anticipatory 
tendency  on  childbirth  and  death  as  admonitions 
and  prefers  to  become  a  child,  to  take  a  powder 
rather  than  to  be  cured  psychotherapeutically. 
Because  her  cure  signifies  her  fitting  herself  into 
the  feminine  role.  Now  the  conflict  is  turned 
more  acutely  against  the  physician  who  wishes  to 
cure  her  insomnia.  She  must  remain  superior  to 
him,  must  permit  him  to  talk  absurdities  and  dic- 
tate to  him,  that  he  should  treat  her  with  medi- 
cines as  she  had  been  treated  when  a  child.  The 
compulsory  neurosis  represents  her  reassuring 
philosophy  of  the  vanity  of  everything  under  the 
sun. 

In  our  sort  of  neuropsychology  one  always 
gains  the  impression  that  the  visible  neurotic  con- 
duct is  directed  straight  to  the  final  purpose,  to 
the  fictitious  goal,  as  if  one  were  examining  one 
of  the  intermediary  pictures  in  a  cinematographic 
film.  The  problem  consists  in  recognizing  this 
conduct,  that  is,  the  symptoms,  predispositions, 
and  traits  of  character,  and  to  learn  to  compre- 
hend their  object.  In  every  neurotic  attitude  the 
beginning  and  final  purpose  is  concealed  in  its 
significance.^     These  facts  form  the  foundation 

B  Bergson  justly  emphasizes  the  same  thing  for  every  move 
of  life.  One  who  possesses  sufficient  insight  and  experience  is 
able  to  see  in  every  psychic  phenomenon  the  past,  present,  and 
future,  but  also  the  desired  finale.  Thus  every  psychic  phenome- 
non and  every  trait  of  character,  similarly  to  the  inferior  somatic 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       353 

of  every  individualistic  psychological  method  and 
coincide  with  our  other  findings.  Therefore  in 
the  analysis  of  a  symptom  or  of  a  dream  the 
feeling  of  effeminacy,  of  inferiority,  of  being 
"down,"  and  the  masculine  protest,  the  fictitious 
manly  goal,  the  feeling  of  being  "above,"  will 
always  be  found  indicated,  in  the  form  of  an  up- 
wardly directed  psychic  attitude,  in  a  hermaph- 
roditic picture  which  is  apperceived  in  a  strongly 
antithetical  manner,  in  neui'otic,  circuitous  ways, 
which  as  such  characterize  the  tendency  to  meet 
obstacles  with  expedients,  or  when  analyzed  re- 
veal at  one  time  the  tendency  upwards,  at  another 
the  tendency  downwards  in  the  alterations  and 
vacillations  of  the  psychic  phenomena.  Fre- 
quently this  "will  to  be  up"  is  expressed  in  a 
strongly  figurative  manner,  especially  in  dreams, 
but  also  in  symptoms,  and  takes  the  symbolic 
form  of  a  race,  of  soaring,  of  climbing  mountains, 
of  emerging  from  water,  etc.,  while  the  "down" 
is  represented  by  falling,  in  short  by  a  motion 
downwards.  Just  as  frequently  the  figure  or 
the  fact  of  the  sexual  act  is  symbolically  employed 
for  the  same  expression.  I  will  here  give  an  ac- 
count of  the  dreams  of  a  patient  who  had  fears 
for  his  future  as  a  man  on  account  of  his  weak- 
ness and  noticeably  effeminate  conduct.     In  a 

organ,  is  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  symbol  of  life,  as  an  attempt  at 
an  ascendancy  of  the  masculine  protest. 


354>  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

dream  of  his  early  childhood  which  for  a  long 
time  filled  him  with  fears  he  saw  himself  pursued 
bv  a  bull.  As  a  farmer's  son  he  understood  at 
that  early  age  that  the  male  pursuer  represented 
a  race  for  a  cow,  that  is,  for  the  patient  himself. 
When  he  was  to  enter  school  he  directed  his  steps 
straight  to  the  girls'  school  and  had  to  be  taken 
to  the  boys'  school  by  force.  He  unconsciously 
regarded  his  life  as  a  race,  for  which  he  con- 
stantly found  preparations.  When  he  was 
courting  a  girl  his  friend  cut  him  out.  When  he 
contemplated  marriage,  he  became  afraid  of  the 
superiority  of  his  wife,  fell  into  the  habit  of  com- 
pulsory masturbation,  suffered  from  frequent 
pollutions,  and  fell  victim  to  a  tremor,  which  hin- 
dered his  work  and  advancement  in  office.  Nat- 
urally he  set  up  the  condition  that  he  would  only 
marry  when  he  was  cured,  a  thought  which 
seemed  to  be  wise  and  justified,  but  which  per- 
mitted the  patient  to  operate  secretly  against  his 
marriage  as  behind  a  veil  because  he  feared  there- 
from a  reduction  of  his  ego-consciousness.  The 
tremor  represented  to  him  the  premonitions  of  a 
paralysis  which  he  feared  on  account  of  his  ex- 
cessive masturbation.  After  he  had  secured  him- 
self in  this  manner  he  still  felt  the  need  of  con- 
firmation of  his  incurability  and  went  weeping  to 
physicians.  Our  conversation  revealed  to  me  the 
picture  of  a  restless,  ambitious  individual  who 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       355 

wished  constantly  to  detract  from  others,  but  who 
recoiled  in  fear  from  a  serious  decision.  Amo- 
rous relations  were  also  with  him  principally  a 
means  of  assuring  himself  of  his  superior  manli- 
ness. No  matter  how  eagerly  he  courted  a  girl, 
the  moment  she  met  his  addresses,  she  lost  all 
charm  for  him.  Besides  as  soon  as  he  ap- 
proached an  engagement  he  entered  into  other 
relations  without  prospect,  or  gave  them  a  pros- 
pectless  form  and  thus  ran  after  his  rejections  in 
order  to  be  able  through  the  feeling  of  his  lack 
of  influence  even  vis-a-vis  his  future  bride,  to  be 
able  to  regard  himself  as  inferior.  From  this  he 
constantly  regained  the  impulse  to  work  secretly 
against  the  apparently  desired  marriage.  One 
of  his  dreams  is  as  follows : 

"I  was  with  my  old  friend  and  was  speaking 
with  him  about  a  mutual  friend.  He  said,  'Of 
what  use  is  his  money  to  him,  he  has  learned  noth- 
ing?' " 

The  old  friend,  who  had  cut  our  patient  out  in 
the  courtship  of  a  girl,  had  failed  in  the  Tech- 
nical school  and  had  given  up  study.  The  pa- 
tient was  superior  to  him  for  he  had  finished  the 
course.  He  embraced  the  sublime  principle, 
"Knowledge  is  more  than  money,"  especially  as 
this  profession  served  his  fiction  to  be  "above" 
and  comforted  him.     The  mutual  acquaintance 


356  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

is  placed  here  instead  of  the  rich  girl  who  was 
courted  by  both.  The  contest  begins  anew. 
Our  patient  is  declared  victor  by  his  rival. 

A  second  dream  which  occurred  the  same  night 
makes  this  clearer.     The  patient  dreamed : 

"As  if  I  had  caused  the  fall  of  a  girl  of  lower 
standing  and  had  dishonored  her." 

The  fiction  of  this  dream  says  a  shade  more 
clearly  that  he  is  "above."  The  girl  who  was 
formerly  courted  is  thus  in  the  sense  of  the  pa- 
tient brought  down,  made  poor,  and  recognizes 
him  as  her  master. 

I  will  here  briefly  mention  that  the  occurrence 
of  several  dreams  in  a  night  signifies  that  vari- 
ous attempts  at  preliminary  arrangements  of  ten- 
tative solutions  of  a  problem  are  undertaken.  It 
becomes  regularly  apparent  that  a  single  way  is 
not  sufficient  for  the  guiding,  egoistic  idea  of  cau- 
tion, a  fact  which  is  easily  comprehended  in  the 
case  of  neurotics.  The  dream  then,  under  the 
influence  of  the  more  intensive  craving  for  secur- 
ity becomes  more  abstract,  more  figurative,  and 
one  thus  obtains  in  interpreting  all  the  dreams  of 
a  night  several  psychic  attitudes,  from  the  com- 
parison of  which  the  dynamic  of  the  neurosis  be- 
comes much  clearer.  In  the  above  cited  case  the 
rival  surrenders  and  the  wealth  of  the  girl — her 
power — is  deprived  of  worth  for  him.     The  sec- 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       357 

ond  dream  deprives  the  girl  also  of  power  and 
places  her  in  the  position  a  woman  that  is  "under" 
occupies,  and  this  is  done  in  the  most  far-fetched 
and  abstract  mamier,  so  that  nothing  personal  is 
left  to  the  girl  under  consideration  except  her 
subordinate  position.  The  patient  besides  ex- 
presses the  thought  that  only  an  uneducated  girl 
from  the  country  serves  his  purpose,  as  he  can 
always  remain  her  master.  The  girl  whom  he 
wishes  to  make  his  wife  frightens  him  because 
of  her  intelligence.^  This  is  the  tendency  of 
many  neurotics,  which  causes  them  alwaj^s  to 
choose  below  their  social  level,  and  thus  thoughts 
and  facts  come  to  pass  such  as  choosing  a  prosti- 
tute or  a  little  girl  for  love  and  marriage,  ne- 
crophilic  tendencies,  etc.  In  all  similar  cases  the 
tendency  to  detract  from  the  partner  is  percepti- 
ble, which  seeks  to  degrade  the  wife  by  the  con- 
sti-uction  of  mistrust,  jealousy,  tyranny,  ethical 
principles  and  requirements. 

A  further  idea  shown  in  a  dream  represents  a 
race  graphically: 

"I  was  riding  in  a  railway  car  and  looked  out 
of  the  window  to  see  if  the  dog  was  still  running 
with  the  train.  I  thought  that  he  had  run  himself 
to  death,  had  fallen  under  the  wheels.     I  felt 

<5  Another  dream  of  the  same  night  may  have  dealt  with  the  vio- 
lation of  a  girl. 


358  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

sorry  for  him.     Then  the  idea  struck  me  that  I 
had  another  dog,  hut  a  clumsy  one." 

He  had  often  ridden  bicycle  races  with  his  old 
friend  and  rival  and  was  usually  left  behind. 
Now  as  his  friend  occupies  a  position  socially  in- 
ferior to  him,  his  friend  "can  run  after  him,"  as 
one  says  in  Vienna  when  a  person  gives  himself 
airs.  The  metamorphosis  into  a  dog  is  a  prod- 
uct of  the  tendency  to  derogation  and  is  quite 
frequently  met  with.  In  a  case  of  dementia 
precox  I  observed  that  the  patient  gave  all  dogs 
the  names  of  women  of  importance.  The  dog 
also  represented  his  future  bride  who  also  brought 
his  superiority  into  question.  Her  death,  more- 
over, would  free  him  of  his  fear,  just  as  he  would 
also  be  free  if  she  should  listen  to  another  suitor, 
as  his  suspicion  often  whispered  to  him  was  the 
case.  "If  she  should  fall  under  the  wheels."  "If 
this  should  occur,  it  would  cause  him  sorrow." 
In  the  dream  he  regards  this  as  having  already 
happened  and  anticipates  his  sorrow.  The 
"clumsy  dog"  is  a  girl  who  about  this  time  had 
disgusted  him  by  meeting  his  advances  and  for 
whom  he  no  longer  cared. 

His  dislike  for  those  above  him  is  boundless 
and  deep-seated.     One  night  he  dreamed: 

"Our  singing  society  gave  a  concert.  The  di- 
rector's "place  was  empty." 


ANTITHETICAL  MODE  OF  THINKING       359 

The  society  to  whicli  he  belonged  was  on  one 
occasion  obhged  to  sing  without  a  director  be- 
cause the  latter  had  missed  the  train.  This  situ- 
ation appeared  to  him  better  than  any  other. 
"We  need  no  director,"  he  thought.  This  is  his 
usual  attitude  in  all  situations  in  which  he  him- 
self is  not  the  director. 

The  impulse  to  masturbation  in  male  neurotics 
corresponds  in  female  neurotics  to  the  tendency 
to  avoid  a  decision  and  thereby  to  remain  "up." 
In  the  masturbation  phantasies  of  girls  the 
woman  is  often  found  to  take  the  role  of  a  man. 
Also  the  position  which  is  taken  therein  is  at 
times  that  of  the  man.  In  men  masturbation 
serves,  first,  as  proof  that  one  can  live  alone,  sec- 
ond, as  a  protection  against  and  hindrance  to 
sexual  relations  which  on  account  of  the  superior- 
ity of  the  wife  are  feared  and  hence  arises  from 
the  craving  for  security.  If  the  situation  neces- 
sitates stronger  securities,  impotence  or  the  de- 
veloped neurosis  makes  its  appearance,  not  as  a 
consequence  of  renunciation  of  masturbation,  but 
as  a  reenforced  security.  The  masturbation 
phantasies  in  neurotics  have  often  a  masochistic 
or  sadistic  feature,  according  to  the  phase  of  the 
masculine  protest  which  they  aim  to  represent. 

Among  the  preparatory  actions  and  neurotic 
expedients  which  are  intended  to  serve  to  secure 
the  position  of  being  "up,"  curiosity,  impulse  to 


860  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

investigation,  the  desire  to  see  everything,  the 
"voyeur"  impulse  mentioned  by  writers  occupies 
a  prominent  place.  These  impulses  are  always  a 
proof  of  a  primary  uncertainty  for  the  compen- 
sation of  which  the  guiding  lines  of  investigation 
are  brought  in.  They  serve  especially  in  devel- 
oped neuroses  secondarily  the  purposes  of  dila- 
toriness  to  avoid  a  plan  and  a  decision  and  are  in 
hfe,  especially  in  the  erotic  very  often  changed 
from  a  means  to  an  end  on  which  all  the  psychic 
activities  are  based.  Investigation,  the  search  for 
truth,  the  wish  to  understand  everything,  the  well 
known  neurotic  thoroughness,  these  are  then  the 
traits  which  the  ego-consciousness  erects  and  must 
elevate  or  protect. 


CHAPTER  VII 

PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIKST,  HOMOSEX- 
UALITY AND  PERVERSION  AS  A  SYMBOL,  MOD- 
ESTY AND  EXHIBITIONISM,  CONSTANCY  AND 
INCONSTANCY,  JEALOUSY 

A  PHENOMENON  often  noted  in  neurotics  is 
their  attitude  towards  the  question  of  jninct^ality. 
In  accordance  with  our  analysis  of  neurotic 
pedantry  the  expectation  is  justified  that  a  large 
number  of  punctual  individuals  will  be  found 
among  neurotics.  This  is  in  fact  the  case.  But 
it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  these  patients  play  with 
the  thought,  how  would  it  be  if  they  should  let 
others  wait,  a  train  of  thought  which  indicates 
their  opposition  to  others.  There  always  re- 
mains in  this  attitude  of  punctuality  so  much  of 
aggression  that  these  patients  exact  the  greatest 
punctuality  from  everybody  without  exception 
and  in  consequence  are  often  in  a  position  to  put 
their  expedients  and  neurotic  preparedness  to 
attacks  into  operation  at  the  tardiness  of  others. 
In  other  cases  it  is  found  that  pride  compels  them 
to  come  late  regularly,  and  when  others  are 
obliged  to  wait  and  a  flood  of  excuses  is  offered, 

861 


362  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

this  is  felt  as  an  enhancement  of  the  ego-con- 
sciousness. This  tardiness  is  well  fitted  to  form 
a  substitute  for  the  fear  of  decisions.  The  social 
fitness  is  greatly  menaced  and  professional  duties 
as  well  as  relations  with  friends  and  loved  ones 
are  soon  eliminated.  Admonitions  are  entirely 
fruitless,  because  the  obstinate  attitude  is  only 
confirmed  by  them.  The  neurotic  is  able  to  mas- 
ter the  situation  by  his  eternal  tardiness  and  thus 
place  before  his  relatives  an  insoluble  problem. 
The  choice  of  this  line  of  character  often  follows 
in  conformity  with  an  analogy:  "as  I  came  into 
the  world  too  late  among  my  brothers  and  sis- 
ters," "because  I  did  not  arrive  later  like  my 
younger  brother  or  sister."  It  may  be  seen  from 
this  how,  by  this  neurotic  arrangement — the  feel- 
ing of  inferiority  and  the  order  of  birth  of  the 
brothers  and  sisters — a  broad  and  permanent 
basis  of  operation  for  the  battle  for  superiority  is 
gained.  Patients  who  always  come  too  early 
show  also  at  other  times  the  trait  of  impatience. 
Through  a  feeling  of  inferiority  they  are  con- 
stantly in  fear  of  other  new  losses  and  reassure 
themselves  by  believing  in  their  "unlucky  star." 
In  cases  of  these  neurotics,  too,  the  elder  brother 
is  often  found  as  an  opponent  with  whom  they 
are  engaged,  as  it  were,  in  a  race,  an  analogical 
fiction,  but  by  no  manner  of  means  the  causal 
factor  of  their  conduct. 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       363 

Fictive  rights  of  primogeniture  become  often 
for  younger  children  the  impetus  for  the  enhance- 
ment of  the  egoistic  idea,  and  in  my  experience 
second  and  later  children  show  greater  tendency 
to  neuroses  and  psychoses,  and  certainly  show 
greater  ambition/  In  their  neurotic  conduct  the 
figurative  analogy  of  the  story  of  Jacob  and 
Esau  comes  to  light,  proving  that  the  wish  to  be 
first  is  at  the  foundation  of  the  situation.  Their 
preparations  and  predispositions  will  always 
have  as  object  to  permit  no  one  to  have  merit, 
to  transform  every  relation  by  means  of  love  and 
hate  so  that  their  superiority  shall  become  appar- 
ent. The  tendency  to  derogation  exceeds  all 
bounds.  The  individual  of  this  type  does  not 
hesitate  at  harming  himself  if  he  can  only  harm 
others  at  the  same  time.  In  the  formal  change 
of  the  guiding  line  a  view  such  as  Csesar  took  is 
often  arrived  at,  "Better  first  in  a  village  than 
second  in  Rome,"  better  to  play  the  leading  role 
with  the  mother  or  father  than  to  draw  an  un- 
known lottery  ticket  in  marriage,  etc.  Hatred 
is  frequently  felt  for  superiors,  teachers  and  phy- 
sicians. They  are  usually  kill- joys  in  social 
gatherings,  as  soon  as  their  superiority  is  not  rec- 
ognized and  they  often  break  off  every  relation 
of  friendship  and  love  after  a  short  time,  if  the* 

1  Compare  Frischauf,  "The  Psychology  of  the  Younger  Brother," 
E.  Reinhardt,  Munich  (in  preparation). 


364  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

other  parties  to  these  relationships  do  not  ac- 
knowledge themselves  inferior.  Very  often  their 
conduct  is  brusque  and  inimical  from  the  start, 
because  they  are  already  at  strife  before  the  other 
person  suspects  it.  They  cannot  endure  to  have 
any  one  stand  or  walk  before  them,  and  avoid 
eveiy  school  examination,  because  the  superiority 
of  the  person  conducting  the  examination  is  un- 
endurable to  them.  That  all  these  phenomena 
may  finally  be  directed  against  the  family  en- 
vironment, and  take  the  form  of  the  view  that 
the  family  must  care  for  the  patient  is  a  further 
step  towards  the  proof  of  the  significance  and 
importance  of  the  egoistic  idea  for  the  patient. 
At  times  they  operate  with  their  neuroses  as  oth- 
ers cany  on  fortune  hunting. 

Frequently  the  wish  to  be  first,  with  the  wife, 
is  hidden  in  the  neurotic  efforts  of  a  male  patient 
and  he  hunts  through  her  previous  life  with  jeal- 
ousy and  suspicion  and  constantly  believes  him- 
self deceived,  or  he  eagerly  keeps  watch  lest  his 
wife  should  prefer  another,  the  fear  of  the  wife  as 
the  expression  of  the  feeling  of  incomplete  man- 
liness. The  neurotic  only  wants  certainty  in  re- 
gard to  this  point  and  even  goes  so  far  as  to  put 
the  wife  to  all  sorts  of  tests.  In  the  burning  j  eal- 
ousy  which  from  this  point  on  possesses  the  neu- 
rotic the  expedients  by  which  the  wife  is  degraded 
follow  of  themselves  and  the  egoistic  feeling  of 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       365 

the  jealous  neurotic  is  thereby  so  greatly  ele- 
vated that  he  is  often  not  in  a  condition  to  sepa- 
rate from  the  justly  or  unjustly  accused  person. 
This  latter  fact  which  is  often  met  with  is  wholly 
dependent  on  the  masculine  guiding  idea  of  the 
patient.  He  cannot  endure  the  thought  that  one 
could  abandon  him  and  reconstructs  the  facts  in 
such  a  way  that  he  is  hindered,  by  love,  by  pity, 
by  fear  of  misfortune  which  might  come  to  wife 
or  children  from  taking  the  final  step. 

Perhaps  the  striving  to  be  first,  to  be  master 
of  all,  is  constructed  on  a  feeling  of  inferiority 
based  with  justification  or  without  it  on  smallness 
of  stature  or  of  the  genital  organs.  In  the  de- 
veloped nem*osis  the  patient  through  the  arrange- 
ment of  a  neurotic  symptom  fails  at  a  distance 
from  the  opportunity  in  which  he  was  to  have 
given  proof.  As  a  frequent  symptom  of  this  sort 
I  was  able  to  observe  compulsory  blushing. 

In  a  less  marked  degree  the  tendency  to  be 
first  is  a  universal  human  characteristic  and  con- 
comitant therewith  is  regularly  found  an  incli- 
nation to  conflict  in  all  human  beings.  The 
competitive  race  begins  even  in  earliest  childhood 
and  creates  its  psychic  organs  and  reassuring 
traits  of  character.  Thus  one  often  finds  in  chil- 
dren the  trait  of  character  that  they  wish  to  be 
the  first  to  eat  or  drink  or  that  they  Hke  to  run 
ahead  in  order  to  reach  a  place  before  others. 


366  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Not  rarely  at  five  years  of  age  they  carry  on  the 
play  of  trying  to  outrun  every  wagon  and  many 
child's  games  owe  their  origin  to  the  idea  of  com- 
petitive races.  Many  persons  preserve  this  in- 
clination throughout  their  entire  life  in  the  form 
of  an  unconscious  gesture,  always  wish  to  walk 
at  the  head  in  a  company  or  hasten  their  steps 
when  any  one  attempts  to  pass  them  on  the 
street.  In  a  transferred  sense  this  tendency 
makes  itself  noticeable  by  the  fact  that  those  who 
possess  it  are  given  to  hero-worship  whereby  the 
more  profound  sense  comes  to  light  of  being  him- 
self, also  Heros,  Achilles,  Alexander,  Hannibal, 
Csesar,  Napoleon  or  Archimedes,  and  thus  be- 
traying at  the  same  time  the  guiding  fiction  and 
the  original  feeling  of  inferiority.  The  likeness 
to  God  also  reveals  itself  as  an  active  fiction  and 
is  manifested  at  times  in  fairy  tales,  in  phantasy, 
and  in  the  psychoses.  We  have  emphasized  that 
in  this  state  of  the  predispositions  and  traits  of 
character  all  bonds  of  friendship  and  love  are 
threatened  and  when  the  stronger  uncertainty 
requires  it,  forces  the  patient  into  doubt,  makes 
him  represent  scarecrows  or  ideal  forms  by  means 
of  which  he  secures  himself  permanently  from 
reality.  A  caricature  of  Cassar,  he  now  seeks 
his  mother,  the  small  city,  the  lower  relations, 
wanders  at  times  restlessly  from  one  place  of 
residence  to  another  as  if  the  external  relations 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       367 

were  the  cause  of  his  dissatisfaction.  In  this 
developed  neurosis  the  sexual  appetite  is  fre- 
quently directed  to  children,  persons  of  low  sta- 
tion, maids;  homosexuality,  perverse  inclinations 
or  inclinations  to  masturbation  are  constructed 
and  adhered  to  because  the  patient  hopes  thus 
more  easily  to  master  the  situation.  For  the  fear 
of  a  woman  hinders  a  natural  sexual  relation  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  neurotic  in  order  to  avoid 
the  defeat  of  which  he  stands  in  fear,  arrives  at 
the  expedient  of  ejaculatio  precox,  of  pollutions, 
and  of  impotence. 

The  circumstances  are  similar  in  neurotic 
women  of  this  type,  in  whom  frequently  rivalry 
in  society  with  friends  in  the  large  city,  with  sis- 
ters, with  a  daughter  and  a  daughter-in-law  is 
secretly  brewing,  forces  to  neui-otic  securities 
and  this  causes  illness.  In  male  neurotics  the 
social  position  leads  to  the  development  of  a  neu- 
rosis as  soon  as  precedence  in  society,  in  science 
or  in  amusement  is  called  into  question  and  con- 
tested. 

Where  the  feeling  of  inferiority  of  the  younger 
child  forms  the  fictitious  guiding  ideal  according 
to  the  pattern  of  the  first  born  or  the  earliest  bom 
the  most  varied  real  and  apparent  advantages 
incite  the  desire  and  envy  of  the  yoimger  child. 
Nearly  always  teachers  will  notice  traits  such  as 
em'^^  of  the  size  of  the  older  brother,  of  his  growth 


368  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  hair,  of  the  size  of  his  genital  organs.  That 
fictitious  values  are  thereto  given  I  was  able  to 
infer  from  the  psychotherapeutic  treatment  of 
two  brothers,  of  whom  each  had  envied  the  other 
in  childhood  on  account  of  the  development  of  the 
genital  organs.  In  the  same  manner  the  real 
preference  of  the  elder  brother  or  such  as  arises 
naturally  from  the  situation  becomes  the  point  of 
attack.  The  fact  that  he  is  taken  to  the  theater 
and  on  journeys,  that  he  has  more  experience  in 
the  sexual  problem,  is  sexually  active,  that  he  is 
preferred  by  girls  and  by  the  servants  may  fill 
the  younger  child,  where  there  is  a  feeling  of  in- 
feriority, with  the  most  profound  bitterness. 
For  this  melanchol}^  at  times  a  hopeless  emo- 
tional condition,  arose  at  a  very  early  age  in  our 
patient  and  attained  an  incredible  degree.  At 
times  there  seems  no  prospect  of  victory  in  the 
competition.  His  manly  tendency  turns  around 
toward  the  pseudomasochistic  side  ^  and  seeks 
now  to  attain  the  manly  goal  by  emphasizing  the 
feelings  of  sickness  and  weakness,  by  yielding 
and  submitting  to  an  extreme  degree  in  the  hope 
of  thus  winning  the  protection  of  parents  and 
those  with  more  strength  and  to  gain  in  this  man- 
ner the  desired  security  in  life.     I  have  seen  cases 

2  According  to  our  conception,  every  perversion  and  inversion 
is  a  simile,  a  symbol.  For  pseudomasochism  see  "The  Psychic 
Treatment  of  Trigeminal  Neuralgia,"  1.  c. 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       369 

where  protracted  catarrh  in  childhood  (Czerny's 
exudative  diathesis )  was  sustained  by  a  combina- 
tion of  the  clearing  of  the  throat  and  panting  and 
led  to  sneezing  fits  and  astlima  (see  Striimpell's 
Asthma-theor}')  and  in  connection  with  which 
^t  the  same  time  fictions  of  pregnancy  and  cas- 
tration and  exaggerated  anal  sensitiveness  ef- 
fected a  homosexual  factor  which  was  to  be  un- 
derstood symbolically.  In  one  of  these  cases  the 
fictitious  feminine  presentation  went  so  far  that 
the  patient  came  to  identify  himself  with  his 
younger  sister  by  a  change  of  form  of  the  guiding 
line.  And  as  the  mother  showed  a  noticeable  in- 
chnation  always  to  be  late,  he  took  this  fact  and 
the  wish  that  he  had  been  born  later  in  place  of 
his  younger  sister  as  a  guiding  motive  always  to 
arrive  late  wherever  he  went,  even  when  he  came 
to  me  for  treatment,  a  phenomenon  which  did  not 
vanish  when  it  was  revealed,  but  only  after  a  cure 
had  been  effected.  In  these  feminine  presenta- 
tions the  masculine  protest  is  striven  after  by  a 
circuitous  route,  by  following  the  feminine  guid- 
ing line  and  is  regularly  accompanied  by  day 
dreams,  sensitiveness,  disputatiousness,  discon- 
tent, and  is  also  as  a  rule  forced  into  side  paths 
by  fear  of  tests,  of  decisions,  of  the  sexual  part- 
ner, so  that  perverse  tendencies,  onanism  and 
pollutions  are  frequently  found.  The  initial 
phenomena  of  inferiority  of  organs  may  disap- 


370  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

pear  or  only  remain  as  a  trace.  Smallness  and 
anomalies  of  the  exterior  genital  organs  may 
sometimes  be  discovered,  but  as  a  rule  only  re- 
veal themselves  psychically  in  the  fear  of  not 
being  able  to  dominate  the  sexual  partner.  This 
emotional  condition  often  leads  to  jealousy,  tend- 
ency to  torment  and  sadistic  inclinations,  by 
which  it  is  sought  to  establish  the  proof  of  po- 
tency and  of  being  loved. 

Often  the  pride  of  the  patient  is  so  great  that 
he  is  himself  not  conscious  of  his  jealousy.  Ac- 
cording to  our  experience  the  solution  of  this 
psychic  constellation  is  that  the  masculine  pro- 
test in  addition  to  other  effects  has  also  the  effect 
of  repressing  jealousy  in  order  to  prevent  a  dimi- 
nution of  personal  worth.  The  consequence  of 
this  repression  is  not  great,  at  most  that  the 
patient  finds  himself  in  ambiguous  situations. 
Generally  he  acts  as  if  he  were  jealous  and  often 
so  plainly  that  every  one  else  except  the  pa- 
tient knows  it.  At  times,  however,  the  jealousy 
is  masked  by  depression,  headache,  refuge  in  soli- 
tude, etc. 

I  will  give  still  another  dream  of  a  patient  who 
came  under  my  treatment  because  of  depression 
and  anxiety  in  society,  because  in  the  partial  in- 
terpretations undertaken  by  the  patient  this 
dream  reveals  many  of  the  points  just  described 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       371 

of  the  competition  of  a  neurotic  with  his  older 
brother : 

"It  seemed  to  me  that  I  had  made  a  bet  with 
my  brother  Joseph  to  beat  him  to  a  certain  place 
which  was  not  distinguishable  in  the  dream. 

"I  saw  myself  now  suddenly  in  a  little  three- 
wheeled  automobile  on  the  road,  and  tried  to  di- 
rect the  automobile  as  well  as  possible  by  means 
of  a  small  apparatus  similar  to  a  key  which  I  was 
only  able  to  take  between  the  thumb  and  index 
finger.  I  rode  very  insecurely  and  felt  uncom- 
fortable. I  got  into  by-paths  on  which  I  could 
go  no  farther.  The  people  whom  I  met  were  as- 
tonished and  laughed.  I  was  forced  to  take  the 
auto  on  my  back  and  turn  back  to  the  road. 
There  I  rode  farther  in  the  same  manner. 

"Suddenly  I  saw  myself  with  my  three-wheeled 
vehicle  in  the  room  of  an  inn  which  was  well 
known  to  me  and  was  situated  on  a  mountain 
near  my  native  place.  I  now  shoved  my  automo- 
bile into  a  corner  and  troubled  myself  no  more 
about  it.  My  brother  had  arrived  before  me  at 
the  same  inn  and  alongside  there  was  sitting  a 
well-known  family  who  were  deeply  in  debt,  con- 
sisting of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  M and  their  two 

daughters.  My  brother  and  I  paid  no  attention 
to  them.     Then  Mr.  M came  to  our  table, 


372  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

spoke  with  us,  and  finally  we  went  to  the  table  of 
the  family  which,  however,  was  unpleasant  to  me. 
"The  thought  of  a  bet  came  up  in  the  course  of 
a  conversation  with  my  brother.  He  advised  me 
not  to  bind  myself  at  an  early  age  to  the  flighty 
girl  that  I  wished  to  marry  and  told  me  from  his 
own  expeiiences  what  ill  results  this  can  have  to 
a  man  striving  for  success.  I  comprehended  this 
and  promised  to  act  according  to  his  advice.  He 
took  little  stock  in  such  promises.  That  incited 
me  to  a  bet.  In  early  years  before  I  knew  what 
lay  buned  in  the  depths  of  his  nature  he  seemed 
to  be  a  model  to  me  and  I  strove  to  become  like 
him  in  character,  mode  of  thought,  and  bearing. 
Now  I  see,  that  I  must  not  pattern  after  him  in 
many  things,  if  I  do  not  wish  to  follow  in  his  foot- 
steps. 

"It  is  easier  to  reach  one's  destination  with  an 
automobile  than  on  foot.  This  auto,  however, 
obviously  represented  the  wife,  to  whom  I  had 
tied  myself.  A  three-wheeled  auto  is  less  per- 
fect than  a  four-wheeled  one,  the  former  lacks 
something.  Thus  it  is  with  a  woman.  Man  is 
perfect.  For  that  reason  the  antithesis,  the  small 
handle.  In  my  earliest  youth  I  was  constantly 
seeking  after  something  in  girls.  There  was 
something  I  could  not  understand  about  them. 
Frequently  we  were  led  to  go  under  a  bridge  and 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       373 

yet  we  did  not  know  what  we  expected  to  see 
through  the  cracks  above.  At  that  time — I  was 
perhaps  five  years  old — I  had  not  the  shghtest 
idea  of  sexual  procedures  ('uncertainty')  and 
had  also  come  upon  no  sexual  aberration.  I  can, 
however,  say  that  even  at  that  time  something 
drew  me  to  girls,  'the  small  handle  on  the  auto' 
indicated  at  the  same  time  that  I  possessed  a  too 
small  penis  or  none  at  all,  for  which  reason  the 
girl  must  be  superior  to  me. 

"I  came  into  by-paths  with  my  auto,  that  is, 
through  the  woman,  through  which  I  could  not 
pass  and  which  brought  me  no  nearer  to  the  goal 
which  I  wished  to  attain,  that  is,  no  nearer  to  the 
summit  of  my  efforts. 

"I  took  the  auto  on  my  back — the  woman  w^as 
thus  more  than  ever  above  me. 

"The  inn  in  which  I  finally  found  myself  with 
my  brother  stood  on  the  top  of  a  mountain,  this 
signified  my  burning  desire  for  success  in  life,  as 
I  had  expected  it  of  my  brother. 

"That  I  met  with  a  family  which  was  deeply  in 
debt  indicates  that  I  had  often  had  exaggerated 
thoughts  concerning  the  cost  of  a  wife  to  her  hus- 
band and  that  the  wife  is  too  often  the  cause  of 
running  into  debt. 

"It  is  clear  to  me  also  that  trains  of  thought 
on  masturbation  (by-paths,  being  in  debt)  run 
through  the  dream,  as  well  as  the  false  connec- 


374>  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

lion  of  masturbation  and  the  stunting  of  the  geni- 
tals. The  latter  I  ascribe  to  my  uncertainty  in 
regard  to  my  bride.  Without  knowing  it  I  hit 
upon  all  sorts  of  expedients  for  getting  rid  of  her 
(in  the  corner).  My  condition  of  depression 
serves  the  same  purpose,  to  be  liberated  from  my 
wife,  to  prove  my  superiority  in  life." 

In  our  physiognomic  of  the  soul  we  under- 
stand the  theory  of  character  to  be  this,  we  have 
akeady  frequently  'spoken  of  those  obvious  and 
deep-seated  wants  which  seek  to  support  and 
maximate  the  ego-consciousness  as  an  obtrusive 
proof  of  manliness,  as  if  there  were  a  constant 
fear  of  becoming  "de-classed,"  of  the  revelation 
of  a  feminine  role.  Thus  the  exaggerated  mod- 
esty of  many  neurotics,  who  can  visit  no  public 
toilet,  who  suffer  from  inhibition  of  the  flow  of 
urine  in  the  presence  of  others,  who  withdraw 
from  female  society  on  account  of  blushing  or 
anxiety  and  palpitation  of  the  heart,  reveals  to 
us  the  strained  manly  ambition,  which  supports 
itself  against  the  original  feeling  of  inferiority. 
The  masculine  protest  of  these  patients,  insecure 
to  the  core,  forces  them  to  this  arrangement 
whose  boundaries  pass  over  into  those  of  bash- 
fulness  and  awkwardness:  or  there  is  a  concord- 
ance of  these  and  other  traits  which  may  on  oc- 
casion supplant  each  other.  Often  in  neurotic 
persons  of  both  sexes  one  finds  an  inability  to  go 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       375 

to  the  toilet  in  cases  of  great  necessity  before 
others.  The  greater  modesty  of  women,  espe- 
cially of  nem'otic  women,  in  all  relations  of  life 
originates  from  the  fear  which  is  implanted  in 
them  from  earliest  childhood  that  attention 
might  be  directed  to  their  sex.  I  have  often  con- 
vinced myself  that  the  performances  of  girls  and 
women  suffer  considerably  from  this  more  or  less 
unconscious  impression,  indeed  that  the  progress 
in  the  mental  development — just  as  is  the  case  in 
male  patients,  who  feel  unmanly — the  formation 
of  social  and  professional  relations  and  relations 
of  love  are  immediately  checked  as  soon  as  the 
patient  comes  into  a  "feminine"  or  subordinate 
role  or  presupposes  this  expectation  in  others. 

This  fact  is  in  no  manner  affected  when  ex- 
pressed or  repressed  sexual  stimuli  come  to  light 
as  the  apparent  source  of  the  checks  of  aggres- 
sion. They  are  similarly  arranged,  have  the  pur- 
pose of  enhancing  the  fear  of  the  partner  and  of 
permitting  the  retreat  decided  upon  in  the  plan 
of  life  to  be  entered  upon  with  certainty,  are 
therefore  also  acts  of  foresight.  The  neurotic 
had  already  in  childhood  laid  the  foundation  of 
this  foresight  and  in  it  is  reflected  the  feeling  of 
shame  as  the  guiding  line  of  reassuring  modesty 
and  the  prudery  of  civilization.  The  previous 
history  of  the  patient  reveals  the  exaggerated 
modesty  and  this  is  true  at  times  of  those  who  in 


376  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

other  respects  show  a  boyish  nature,  and  the  anx- 
iety of  nervous  children  on  being  ex^^osed  may  be 
observed  in  their  conduct.  They  exclude  every 
one  from  the  room  and  will  lock  the  doors  when 
they  are  going  to  undress.  This  conduct  is  also 
often  observed  in  boys  who  have  gro\^Ti  up  among 
girls.  The  masculine  protest  of  the  latter  is  ex- 
pressed in  these  cases  in  the  derogation  of  the 
boy,  either  purposely  or  unthinkingly  until  he 
goes  so  far  as  to  hide  his  sex.  For  the  develop- 
ment of  the  neuroses  this  expedient  of  cowardice 
has  an  unfavorable  significance.  It  is  equal  to 
later  castration  thoughts  and  wishes  of  the  neu- 
rotic, wishes  to  be  a  woman,  as  soon  as  the  fear 
of  the  wife  seems  actual,  or  as  soon  as  he  wishes 
to  escape  a  decision.  And  it  arises  nevertheless 
originally  from  the  compulsion  of  an  exaggerated 
masculine  protest,  which  is  easily  perceptible 
from  the  accompanying,  often  continuing  traits 
of  character,  such  as  tyranny,  burning  ambition, 
the  desire  to  have  everything,  to  be  first  every- 
where; from  the  emotional  predispositions  to 
rage  and  anger  and  finally  from  the  tendency  to 
derogate  and  to  too  great  foresight. 

If  therefore  neurotic  modesty  should  be  con- 
sidered equal  to  the  secret  attempt  to  play  the 
man,  this  "consciousness  of  role"  (Groos)  is  more 
clearly  manifested  in  the  apparently  antithetical 
trait  of  character  of  shamelessness.     In  reality 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       377 

this  latter  line  proves  to  be  a  reenforcement  and 
continuation  of  the  former,  as  an  obtrusive  re- 
minder to  the  environment  that  one  is  a  man. 
The  guiding  idea,  which  causes  the  predisposition 
to  or  habit  of  exhibitionistic  gestures,  hence  often 
insulting  or  tactless  obtrusion  in  respect  to  the 
environment  betrays  in  detail  the  strong  mascu- 
line factor.  Thus  it  is  when  in  nervous  boys  and 
men  sexual  exhibitionism  breaks  through  or  is 
expressed  habitually  in  certain  faults  of  toilette. 
In  all  similar  cases  one  finds  the  belief  in  the 
power  of  the  phallus  constructed  as  in  the  an- 
tique religious  cults  as  consciousness  of  power. 
Narcissistic  traits  are  also  regularly  intermin- 
gled so  that  in  these  cases  the  attitude  of  con- 
quest, accompanied  by  coquetry,  by  the  inability 
to  believe  in  a  refusal,  attracts  the  attention.  In 
shameless  girls  the  trait  is  even  more  noticeable 
because  it  is  unusual.  In  conversation,  in  dress, 
in  behavior,  at  times  only  in  small  things,  at  times 
obscurely  or  in  coprology  they  demonstrate  their 
inability  to  adapt  themselves  to  or  to  satisfy 
themselves  with  their  feminine  role.  The  basis 
of  operation  for  both  sexes  is  manifested  then  in 
such  a  way  that  each  demands  from  the  other 
recognition  or  an  extreme  submission.  In  the 
analysis  of  such  neurotic  girls,  at  times  only  in 
their  dreams  and  symptoms  is  observed  the  child- 
ish expectation  of  a  metamorphosis  into  a  male 


378  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

and  in  other  cases  always  as  an  attempted  sub- 
stitute for  the  will  to  power,  the  wish  to  be  above. 
If  two  persons  of  this  sort  meet,  the  result  is  not 
rarely  that  the  reenforced  masculine  guiding  line 
of  the  one  affects  the  other  preliminarily  as  a 
sort  of  miracle,  a  talisman,  because  in  her  guiding 
ideal  the  belief  in  the  miraculousness  and  wonder 
working  power  of  manliness  is  also  contained. 
Thus  there  is  often  for  both  what  seems  a  chance 
fulfilling  of  destiny,  but  which  is  really  brought 
about  by  the  power  of  their  idea  of  personality. 
One  often  finds  immodest  conduct  in  neurotic 
girls  as  an  anticipation  of  their  fictitious  expec- 
tation; they  conduct  themselves  as  if  they  were 
really  a  boy  or  a  man,  expose  themselves  naked 
or  live  out  in  neurotic  symptoms,  dreams  and 
phantasies  their  masculine  reincarnation.  Often 
in  such  patients  the  attempt  is  observed  to  ascribe 
the  miraculous  power  of  the  phallus  by  means  of 
an  alteration  of  form  of  the  fiction  to  other  parts 
of  the  body,  for  example  to  the  hands,  feet, 
breasts,  which  thus  altered  into  male  members  are 
taken  into  especial  favor  as  fetiches  and  enjoy  a 
Narcissus-form  worship,  as  often  also  the  genital 
organs  or  the  whole  body.  This  fetichism  is 
nearly  alwaj^s  transferred  to  the  articles  of  cloth- 
ing and  constitutes  a  large  part  of  the  charm  of 
fashion,  from  which  we  therefore  must  assume 
that  this,  like  the  fetichism  itself,  must  be  re- 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       379 

garded  as  a  substitute  of  manliness  with  its 
larger  sphere  of  usefulness,  which  has  been  lost 
but  which  is  always  to  be  sought. 

Like  immodesty  the  deep-seated  neurotic  infi- 
delity of  many  sick  patients  is  an  imitation  of 
the  exaggerated,  apperceived  masculine  image. 
It  indicates  to  us  one  of  the  ways  which  the  mas- 
culine goal  is  forced  to  take.  It  is,  like  many  of 
the  neurotic  traits  of  character,  often  only  ideal, 
a  maker  of  humor  or  of  the  view  of  life  (Marczi- 
nowsky)  or  extends  only  to  the  boundary  where 
the  reality  of  the  female  role  begins.  Much 
oftener  the  virtue  of  fidelity  is  chosen  as  the 
means  of  security  in  the  fear  of  the  man.  Phan- 
tasies of  infidelity,  at  times  to  the  degree  of  hal- 
lucinations or  dreams,  often  result  where  there 
is  real  or  imagined  subjection  exacted  by  the  hus- 
band. Phantasies  of  prostitution  indicate  in 
these  cases  the  neurotic,  exaggerated  perspective 
concerning  the  power  of  the  sexual  appetite  and 
serve  the  same  purpose  of  gaining  security.  In 
general  in  patients  who  are  prone  to  speak  of 
their  sexuality  the  suspicion  is  justified  that  they 
paint  their  bugbear  with  great  exaggeration. 
The  reality  is  alwaj^s  in  their  favor.  In  girls 
often  the  holy  conviction  of  their  infidelity  occu- 
pies the  foreground  entirely.  It  may  be  there- 
from inferred  that  for  them  even  a  single  man 
would  be  too  much  and  that  they  wish  to  protect 


380  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

themselves  from  love  and  especially  from  mar- 
riage: "for  where  does  my  passion  drive  me?" 
The  real  infidelity  of  many  persons,  too,  both 
men  and  women,  is  the  result  of  the  fear  of  the 
partner  of  whose  superiority  they  are  afraid. 
The  understanding  of  the  accompanying  symp- 
toms, fear  of  solitude,  fear  of  places,  fear  of  so- 
ciety, etc.,  unsocial  conduct,  fixation  of  faults  of 
childhood  and  derogation  of  the  opposite  sex  are 
other  signs  by  which  the  masculine  purpose  of 
these  traits  of  character  is  revealed.  Often  de- 
spised love  gives  rise  to  a  feeling  of  a  reduction 
of  the  egoistic  sense  to  such  a  degree  that  hate, 
indifference  or  infidelity  are  the  forms  which  the 
masculine  protest  assumes. 

In  this  place  a  few  educational  observations 
may  be  added,  which  I  was  in  a  position  to  make 
in  regard  to  neurotics  suffering  from  jealousy. 
They  all  have  reference  to  the  search  for  proofs 
of  the  influence  of  the  individual  over  the  part- 
ner and  every  situation  which  is  even  half-way 
fitted  for  this  purpose  is  made  use  of.  The  in- 
satiableness  with  which  the  neurotic  tests  his  part- 
ner is  an  indication  of  the  want  of  self-confidence, 
of  his  lack  of  self-esteem,  of  his  uncertainty  so 
that  it  is  easy  to  be  seen  how  his  jealous  efforts 
serve  to  bring  him  more  into  notice,  to  attract 
more  attention  to  himself  and  thus  to  secure  his 
self-esteem.     The   old   feeling   of   being   disre- 


PUNCTUALITY,  THE  WILL  TO  BE  FIRST       381 

garded  and  neglected  is  seen  to  be  revived  upon 
the  slightest  occasion  together  v^^ith  the  childish 
attitude  of  wishing  to  have  everything,  to  obtain 
a  proof  of  superiority  from  the  partner.  A 
glance,  a  word  in  company,  an  acknowledgment 
of  a  favor,  a  show  of  sympathy  for  a  picture,  for 
an  author,  for  a  relative,  even  a  protective  atti- 
tude towards  servants  may  be  taken  as  the  cause 
of  the  operation.  In  severe  cases  the  impression 
is  distinctly  given  that  the  jealous  individual 
cannot  rest  because  he  has  no  confidence  in  peace- 
ful happiness  on  account  of  his  misfortune. 
Now  the  neurosis  develops  in  which  the  effort  is 
made  to  bend  the  partner  by  an  arrangement  of 
attacks,  to  arouse  the  sympathy  of  the  partner, 
or  the  attack  is  intended  as  a  punishment. 
Headaches,  weeping  fits,  conditions  of  weakness, 
paralysis,  attacks  of  anxiety  and  depression,  si- 
lence, etc.,  have  the  same  value  as  abandoment 
to  alcoholism,  masturbation,  perversion  and  lewd- 
ness. The  lines  of  distrust  and  doubt — often 
about  the  legitimacy  of  the  children — become 
more  pronounced,  outbreaks  of  wrath  and  scold- 
ing, mistrust  of  the  entire  opposite  sex  are  regu- 
lar phenomena  and  reveal  the  other  side  of  jeal- 
ousy as  a  preparation  for  the  derogation  of  the 
other.  Often  pride  prevents  consciousness  of 
jealousy;  the  conduct  is  the  same.  The  situa- 
tion is  not  rarely  made  worse  by  the  circumstance 


382  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

that  the  other  party  meets  the  helplessness  of  the 
jealous  person  with  an  unconscious  satisfaction, 
thereby  giving  foundation  to  his  feeling  of  su- 
periority and  does  not  therefore  find  the  right 
tone,  the  proper  attitude  to  hold  the  jealousy  at 
least  within  limits.  Jealousy  of  children  often 
leads  to  grave  faults  of  education.  The  belief 
in  miracles  as  a  threat  to  the  sexual  organs 
through  births  or  aging  nearly  always  causes 
jealous  excitement  to  be  more  strongly  mani- 
fested in  neurotically  disposed  persons. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

FEAE  OF  THE  PAETNER;  THE  IDEAT.  IN  THE  NEU- 
ROSIS*, INSOMNIA  AND  COMPULSION  TO  SLEEP; 
NEUROTIC  COMPARISON  OF  MAN  AND  WOMAN  *, 
FORMS  OF  THE  FEAR  OF  THE  WIFE 

In  this  striving  of  the  neurotic  for  the  attain- 
ment of  the  masculine  guiding  goal,  one  never 
misses  the  fact,  as  has  already  been  emphasized, 
that  the  fear  of  a  decision  resolves  itself  into  a 
fear  of  the  opposite  sex,  that  touchstone  of  the 
individual's  own  power,  the  fulfiller  of  the  guid- 
ing idea.  One  finds  in  the  family  life  of  boys 
and  girls,  in  their  play  and  phantasy,  in  their 
assortment  of  experiences  of  all  kinds,  in  their 
day  dreams  and  poems  and  in  their  living  out 
of  actual  experiences  preparations  for  the  strug- 
gle for  supremacy  so  early,  with  such  abundance 
and  such  unity  of  purpose  that  in  arriving  at 
puberty  secure  determinants  for  love  and  mar- 
riage already  exist  and  by  these  alone  the  choice 
and  direction  of  their  eroticism  is  defined  within 
narrow  limits.  Let  us  consider  now  of  what  na- 
ture these  determinants  of  love  objects  may  be 
in  neurotics.     Among  these  should  be  mentioned 

383 


S84)  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

tyranny,   hypersensitiveness,    ambition,    discon- 
tent and  all  the  principal  neurotic  character- 
traits  already  described,  the  security-giving  de- 
vices of  mistrust,  caution,  jealousy  and  deroga- 
tory   tendency    which    is    everyv^^here    seeking 
faults,  the  neurotic  digressions  and  subterfuges 
which  are  at  first  directed  against  members  of 
their  own  family,  and  which  are  intended,  with 
this  as  a  basis,  to  prove  their  own  superiority  or 
to   facilitate   the   escape  of  the   superiority   of 
others.     The  neurotic  device  has  its  part  in  this 
and  demands  for  love  some  quality  which  is  dif- 
ficult of  attainment  or  entirely  out  of  reach,  or 
that  the  sexual  partner  "shall  supply  that  which 
is  lacking"    (Plato  and  many  modern  sexolo- 
gists), which  is  paramount  to  saying  that  the 
partner  must  fulfill  or  represent  the  "ego-ideal" 
which  the  other  party  to  the  contract  has  con- 
structed as  a  compensation.     The  normal  child, 
too,  expects  from  his  future,  and  especially  from 
the  one  chosen  in  love  the  fulfillment  of  his  ideals. 
But  in  due  course  of  time,  after  he  has  permitted 
himself  to  be  driven  by  his  "ideal"  as  a  means  to 
an  end  he  is  able  to  detach  himself  from  it,  de- 
scend to  reality  and  reckon  with  the  demands  of 
reality.     Not  so  with  the  neurotic.     He  is  un- 
able  to  change  his  neurotic  perspectives  through 
his  own  power,  he  cannot  dispense  with  his  prin- 
ciples which  have  by  now  become  fixed  and  rigid, 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  385 

he  has  no  longer  control  over  his  traits  of  char- 
acter. Chained  to  his  "idea"  he  brings  his  old, 
prejudices  into  his  love-relations  and  behaves  as 
though  they  ought  to  procure  for  him  not  reality 
but  the  security  of  his  "idea,"  the  triumph  of  his 
strained  masculine  protest.  And  soon  disillusion 
makes  its  appearance.  For  it  is  introduced  by 
the  neurotic  himself  as  a  protective  measure,  as 
a  security  against  the  prospective  derogatory  ef- 
fect of  his  Active  finale.  The  disillusionment 
furnishes  the  adequate  basis  for  a  continuance  of 
the  strife  against  the  partner,  for  a  recognition 
of  every  opportunity  for  the  degradation  of  the 
latter.  For  these  were,  after  all,  the  most  im- 
mediate goals  of  the  old  preparatory  training. 

Unconsciously,  the  fear  of  the  sexual  partner 
hovers  in  the  soul  of  the  growing  neurotic  as 
though  he  anticipated  in  the  approach  of  that 
event  the  end  of  his  masculine  fiction  and  with  it 
the  annihilation  of  his  ego-consciousness,  of  his 
guiding  star,  of  his  security  in  the  chaos  of  life. 
He  creates  for  himself  ideals  in  order  to  detract 
from  reality.  He  screws  his  ego-consciousness, 
often  in  a  narcissistic  manner,  as  high  as  pos- 
sible in  order  to  make  every  partner  appear  small 
by  contrast.  He  surrounds  himself  with  a  wall 
of  the  most  crass  egotism  in  order  to  furnish  the 
proof  of  his  unfitness  to  himself  and  others.  He 
arranges   in  a  neurotic  manner  doubt,   uncer- 


386  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

tainty,  awkwardness,  adheres  to  old  faults  of 
childliood  and  constructs  new  deficiencies  in  or- 
der to  keep  himself  at  a  distance.  He  invents 
weaknesses,  submissiveness,  masochistic  impulses 
in  order  to  alarm  himself.  The  power  of  the  sex 
instinct  becomes  for  him  an  "overvalued  idea" 
(Wernicke) ,  because  he  feels  its  need  and  apper- 
ceives  his  sexual  desire  as  the  superiority  of  the 
opposite  sex.  The  neurotic  is  incapable  of  love, 
not  because  he  has  repressed  his  sexuality,  but 
because  his  rigid  predispositions  lie  in  the  direc- 
tion of  his  fiction,  in  the  line  towards  power. 
The  neurotic  caricatures  of  Don  Juan  and  Mes- 
salina  are,  notwithstanding  their  sexuality,  neu- 
rotic. Those  who  become  inverts  and  perA'^erts 
have  already  escaped  the  threatening  cliffs  and 
seek  henceforth  to  make  a  virtue  of  necessity. 
And  where  thoughts  of  incest  apparently  effect 
a  check  on  the  erotic  life,  it  can  be  shown  that 
to  the  neurotic,  who  constantly  fears  a  decision, 
this  represents  a  secure  refuge,  that  is,  the  secure 
way  to  the  mother  or  father  clothed  in  a  sexual 
simile. 

The  flight  from  the  partner,  especially  the 
flight  from  the  wife,  succeeds  better  in  those  neu- 
rotics who  have  early  succeeded  in  finding  their 
way  to  a  profession  or  who  have  turned  to  an 
artistic  vocation.  It  is  true  that  should  they  be 
threatened  with  a  feminine  role,  with  defeat,  the 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  887 

fear  of  a  decision,  of  their  future,  of  life,  of  death 
may  overtake  them  in  the  midst  of  their  labors. 
Frequently,  however,  some  sort  of  tranquilizing 
occupation  furnishes  the  neurotics  the  means  se- 
curing his  ego-consciousness,  or  his  talents,  in  ef- 
fecting a  formal  change  in  his  fiction,  furnish  him 
the  opportunity  to  contest  for  the  pahii  of  mas- 
culinity in  art.  It  is  then  not  rare  that  the  mo- 
tive and  content  of  his  artistic  creations  reflect 
that  which  has  driven  him  into  the  security-giv- 
ing sphere  of  art,  namely,  the  power  of  woman 
and  his  fear  of  the  wife. 

The  wonderfully  effective  charm  which  many 
myths,  many  creations  of  art  and  philosophy  pos- 
sess for  us,  is  in  line  with  this;  the  fault  of  the 
woman,  the  banal  "cherchez  la  femme,"  in  all 
evils.  The  thought  is  expressed  in  a  bizarre 
manner  by  Baudelaire,  "I  can  form  no  idea  of  a 
beautiful  woman  without  at  the  same  imagining 
misfortune  connected  with  her;"  mji:hically  and 
sublimely,  in  the  story  of  Eve,  traces  of  which 
have  never  been  missing  from  poetry.  "The 
Iliad"  is  built  upon  this  foundation,  as  well  as  the 
"Thousand  and  One  Nights,"  and  if  one  exam- 
ines more  closely,  every  great  and  small  artistic 
creation.  What  is  its  leading  thought?  Noth- 
ing less  than  to  win  a  standpoint  in  the  uncertain- 
ties of  life,  in  the  conflict  with  love,  in  the  fear 
of  woman. 


388  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Woman  as  a  sphjTix,  as  a  demon,  as  a  vam- 
pire, as  a  witch,  as  a  man-murdering  horror,  as 
benefactress,  in  all  these  pictures  is  reflected  the 
sexual  impulse  which  has  become  over-excited  by 
the  masculine  protest  and  which  have  their  coun- 
terpart in  the  caricature  of  woman,  in  the  obscene 
outpourings  of  gall,  in  anecdotes  and  degrading 
comparisons.  In  the  same  manner  the  neurotic, 
philistine  male-consciousness  and  the  desire  for 
superiority  forces  to  those  firm  convictions  which 
would  deny  woman  equal  rights,  sometimes  even 
the  right  to  existence. 

Another  turn  which  neurotic  trains  of  thought 
may  take  in  seeking  security  from  woman  leads 
as  a  natural  consequence  away  from  reality  and 
life.  In  line  with  this  Schopenhauer  was  led  to  a 
denial  of  life,  the  present,  all  time.  (The  prepa- 
rations for  this  attitude  originated  in  his  un- 
friendly attitude  towards  his  mother.)  ISIany 
patients  flee  in  a  somewhat  less  consistent  and 
methodical  manner  in  their  fear  of  woman,  but 
thev  constantlv  hanker  after  the  fulfillment  of 
their  fiction  in  phantasies  and  dreams  which  they 
weave  about  the  future.  Every  neurotic  shows 
this  trait,  wishes  to  illuminate  and  investigate 
the  future  in  order  to  secure  himself  in  good 
time.  His  cautious  and  anxious  expectation 
gives  the  fundamental  tone  to  future  events, 
gray,  somber,  full  of  danger.     For  they  must 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  389 

seem  thus  to  him  in  order  to  be  effective  as  in- 
centives. Now  he  is  able  to  keep  the  greatest 
danger  in  sight,  draw  the  hnes  of  his  character- 
traits  and  predispositions  to  the  fineness  of  a  hair 
in  order  to  secm-e  himself  adequately.  Now  he 
believes  to  have  discovered  the  road  to  his  goal, 
and  instead  of  ambition,  longing  after  victory 
and  triumph,  honor,  elevation,  power  and  ad- 
miration, he  allows  his  symptoms  to  become  ef- 
fective. He  experiences  under  the  compulsion 
of  his  guiding  principle,  as  a  prophetic  gift,  what 
sober  individuals  experience  through  their  fore- 
sight and  estimation  of  reality.  But  with  neu- 
rotic strivings  of  "anticipatory  thinking,"  atten- 
tion approaches  problems  and  arranges  them  in 
accordance  with  the  neurotic's  antithetical  mode 
of  apperception,  which  values  a  defeat  as  death, 
as  inferiority,  as  effeminacy,  and  victory  as  im- 
mortality, higher  values,  masculine  triumph, 
while  the  hundreds  of  other  possibilities  of  life 
are  anniliilated  by  withdrawing  them  from  atten- 
tion. In  the  same  manner  the  way  is  entered 
upon  to  the  anticipation  of  future  triumph  and 
terror  as  well  as  an  hallucinatory  reinforcement 
for  the  sake*  of  security.  The  psychoses  show 
this  trend  in  a  pure  manner,  melancholia  and 
mania  as  anticipations  of  the  pure  antithesis 
"above-beneath,"  dementia  prascox,  paranoia  and 
cyclothyemia  as  a  mixture. 


390  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  recognition  and  construction  of  traits  of 
character  now  follow  essentially  in  strict  con- 
formity with  the  goal-idea.  The  accentuation  of 
the  traits  of  greed  and  economy  is  intended  to 
prevent  the  abjectness  of  poverty,  pedantry,  to 
assure  against  difficulties,  ethical  traits  of  char- 
acter, against  shame,  and  all  of  these  against 
relations  of  love  and  marriage,  against  a  subjec- 
tion to  the  partner,  and  at  the  same  time  furnish 
the  possibility  of  an  attack  upon  the  partner,  an 
ever  ready  excuse  for  his  own  depreciation  of 
others.  The  device  of  the  "principle  of  exclu- 
sion," is  held  in  the  highest  esteem,  becomes  a  re- 
ligious or  proverbial  principle  of  life,  of  the  high- 
est wisdom.  The  uncertainties  of  our  social  sys- 
tem, ethical  points  of  view  and  the  difficulties  at- 
tendant upon  the  rearing  of  children,  furnish  a 
welcome  excuse  for  the  construction  of  the 
boundaries  of  a  natural  and  reasonable  attitude 
towards  hf e  as  narrowly  as  possible,  while  the  ob- 
scurity and  insolubihty  of  the  problems  of  hered- 
ity are  distorted  in  a  similar  manner  in  order  to 
justify  an  unwedded  life.  Many  take  refuge  in 
religion,  surrender  their  present  life,  excite  their 
moral  and  ascetic  instincts  in  order  to  become 
partakers  in  the  happiness,  in  the  triumph  in  the 
"beyond."  An  asexual  role  is  arranged  and 
everj^thing  becomes  a  means  for  the  attainment 
of  the  heightened  ego-consciousness  which  is  ren- 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  391 

dered  possible  by  the  neurotic  perspective  of  life 
and  its  experiences.  At  times  secui'ity  is  at- 
tained through  a  want  of  satisfaction  in  sexual 
relations,  through  a  heightening  of  the  disillu- 
sionment to  a  marked  degree,  a  device  to  which 
the  patient  plainly  lends  his  assistance. 

It  is  only  another  phase  of  the  fear  of  the 
partner  when  the  patient  brings  his  predisposi- 
tions into  play  against  the  psychotherapeutist. 
The  neurotic  female  patient  combats  the  man  in 
the  physician  at  the  same  time,  and  seeks  to  es- 
cape his  masculine  influence  which  she  often  ap- 
perceives  as  most  terrifying,  looking  at  it  as  she 
does  from  a  sexual  point  of  view.  The  male 
neurotic  secretly  seeks  to  undermine  the  influence 
of  the  psychotherapeutist,  which  influence  he  ap- 
perceives  as  sexual  superiority,  and  both  conduct 
themselves  during  the  course  of  the  treatment  as 
they  had  always  conducted  themselves  whenever 
compelled  to  take  an  active  part  in  life,  or  when- 
ever confronted  by  a  decision. 

At  times  patients  are  found  whose  flight  from 
woman  is  into  the  past.  It  is  then  that  their  in- 
terest for  antiquities,  heraldry,  dead  languages, 
etc.,  becomes  very  acute,  and  they  often  become 
quite  skillful  in  this  direction.  This  skill  is  ab- 
sent in  those  patients  who  instead  turn  their  at- 
tention to  grave-yards,  death-notices  and  fu- 
nerals. 


392  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

I  have  already  mentioned  that  the  "motive  of 
the  fear  of  woman,"  is  the  strongest  incentive  to 
art  and  phantasy.  Permit  me  to  quote  an  ab- 
stract from  Grillparzer's  autobiography,  which 
illmninates  much  of  our  thesis. 

"Like  every  well-made  man  I  felt  myself  at- 
tracted by  the  beautiful  half  of  mankind.  I  was, 
however,  far  too  little  satisfied  with  myself  to  be- 
lieve myself  capable  of  making  deep  impressions 
in  a  short  time.  Could  it  have  been  the  vague 
conception  of  the  poet  or  of  poetry,  or  was  it  the 
reserve  of  my  nature,  which  when  it  does  not 
repel,  attracts,  because  of  the  spirit  of  contradic- 
tion? I  would  find  myself  deeply  entangled 
while  I  still  beheved  myself  to  be  only  at  the 
first  advances.  This  promised  both  pleasure  and 
pain  near  at  hand,  though  mostly  the  latter,  be- 
cause my  real  efforts  had  always  been  to  preserve 
myself  in  that  tranquil  state  which  would  not  ren- 
der difficult,  or  even  entirely  prevent  the  ap- 
proach of  my  real  goddess,  art." 

When  both,  artist  and  neurotic,  regard  the  at- 
traction of  woman  as  menacing,  as  dangerous, 
as  a  compulsion  on  account  of  the  uncertainty  of 
their  triumph,  when  both  regard  amorous  emo- 
tions as  a  subjection,  it  is  only  in  conformity  with 
the  fundamental  disposition  that  animates  both. 
By  which  I  do  not  at  all  intend  to  deny  the  reali- 
ties of  these  relations.     An  examination  of  love, 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  393 

be  it  ever  so  sober,  reveals  a  mutual  adaptation, 
a  subjection  of  our  will.  To  put  forth,  however, 
special  efforts  to  unearth  these,  to  think  of  them 
as  something  significant  and  to  renounce,  for  this 
reason,  the  pleasurable  yielding  thereto,  reveals 
unequivocally  an  uncoiiquerable  craving  for  self- 
assertion  on  the  part  of  the  person  in  question, 
which  we  have  frequently  shown  to  be  the  neu- 
rotic's overcompensation  for  his  neurotic  feeling 
of  inferiority.  The  guiding  goal  forbids  the  for- 
mation of  fitting  predispositions,  or  presents 
them  only  in  the  form  of  ?.n  unmeasurable  maso- 
chistic exaggeration,  which  is  in  turn  itself  used 
as  a  protective  measure. 

At  times  this  craving  for  self-assertion  seeks 
other  channels  as  soon  as  it  feels  its  own  libidi- 
nous tension  as  the  superior  power  of  the  partner. 
Wishes  and  efforts  then  emerge  to  escape  this 
power  through  satiety,  through  orgies.  Even 
castration  wishes  and  intents,  and  similarly 
ascetic  and  repentant  practices  make  their  ap- 
pearance, such  as  flagellation,  etc.,  incited  by  the 
unconquerable  craving  for  security,  all  in  order 
to  win  peace  from  the  demon,  love.  Active,  con- 
stantly recurring  perversions,  especially  maso- 
chistic manifestations,  can  be  explained  in  no 
other  way.  They  are  an  expression  of  the  neces- 
sity of  convincing  one's-self  in  detail  of  the  sin- 
ister strength  of  the  partner,  in  order  to  be  able 


394  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

to  construct  out  of  this  conviction  of  the  strength 
of  the  other  and  of  one's  own  weakness  an  admon- 
ishnig  bugbear.  The  real  result  of  this,  the  neu- 
rotic's rectification  of  boundaries,  is  a  strong 
deviation  from  the  normal  path,  which  path  he 
fears  most  of  all.  The  self-degradation  thus  ar- 
ranged now  furnishes  a  stronger  stimulus  for  the 
masculine  protest  and  enhances  it  in  line  with  the 
goal-idea.  "It  must  be  night,  where  Friedland's 
stars  shine."  Now,  after  these  detours,  his  ef- 
forts are  again  directed  along  the  paths  of  his 
nem'otic  goal,  reveal  sadistic  admixtures  and  a 
strong  purification  fanaticism  in  case  facts  or 
fancies  of  a  coprophilic  nature  play  a  role.  Or 
the  patient  contends  himself  to  create  an  appear- 
ance of  justification  for  his  neurotic  detours  by 
means  of  a  struggle  against  the  judgment  of 
others,  against  the  law,  or  often  by  having  re- 
course to  an  unheard  of  logic,  and  in  this  way 
seeks  again  to  prove  his  superiority.  Thus  it  is 
in  the  arguments  of  inverts  who  in  the  same 
manner  owe  their  neurotic  deviation  from  nor- 
mality to  their  fear  of  the  opposite  sex. 

The  prestige  which  it  is  sought  to  maintain,  the 
masculine  protest  is  always  shoved  into  the  fore- 
ground, until  the  enlightening  analysis  aiTives  at 
that  point  where  in  the  memories  of  man  the  neu- 
rotically grouped  thoughts  come  to  light,  i.  e., 
that  it  is  his  inferiority,  his  underdeveloped  geni- 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  395 

talia  which  will  hinder  hini  from  obtaining  vic- 
tory over  woman;  in  the  memories  of  female  pa- 
tients this  place  is  occupied  by  the  feeling  of  in- 
feriority, by  the  neurotic  terror  of  the  feminine 
role.  Along  with  these  rediscovered  trains  of 
thought,  which  have  their  origin  in  the  earliest 
years  of  childhood,  one  detects  megalomanic 
ideas  often  in  the  shape  of  narcissism  and  exhibi- 
tionism. They  are  to  be  readily  understood  as 
preparatory  attempts  at  compensation  for  the 
feeling  of  inferiority,  such  as  are  produced  by  the 
compulsion  of  the  guiding  fiction,  as  secondary 
neurotic  formations  which  say,  "I  want  to  be  a 
complete  man."  The  change  of  formula  which 
this  thought  experiences  in  girls  into  the  ideal, 
"I  will  excel  all  w^omen"  has  akeady  been  men- 
tioned. 

I  am  able  to  present  some  of  these  relation- 
ships in  the  case  of  the  following  female  patient. 
A  19-year-old  girl  came  under  my  care  for  de- 
pression, suicidal  ideas,  insomnia  and  incapacity 
for  work.  She  had  become  an  artist  in  order  to 
have  a  profession.  With  the  exception  of  indica- 
tions of  hereditary  tuberculosis  and  myopia  there 
were  no  discoverable  bodily  symptoms.  The  rel- 
atives described  her  as  formerly  an  obstinate 
child  who  left  home  because  she  wished  to  be  self- 
supporting.  Her  mother  and  her  only  older 
brother  died  of  tuberculosis. 


396  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  commencement  of  the  treatment  was  very 
difficult  because  the  patient  sat  before  me  show- 
ing great  indifference  and  answered  none  of  my 
questions.  Only  at  times  did  she  express  herself 
with  a  negative  gesture,  or  answered  with,  "No." 

I  began  to  work  cautiously,  I  explained  to  her 
that  her  indifference  is  identical  with  her  general 
derogatory  tendency,  the  same  being  true  of  her 
continued  silence  in  my  presence,  her  negativism, 
her  "No,"  all  of  which  are  part  of  this  derogatory 
tendency  now  directed  against  me.  I  then  en- 
deavor to  show  her  that  her  conduct  indicates  her 
discontent  with  her  feminine  role  against  which 
she  seeks  to  secure  herself  in  this  manner.  She 
answers  me  constantly  with,  "No,"  which  I  disre- 
gard as  something  to  be  expected  and  which  is 
directed  against  me,  the  male,  and  proceed. 
Her  depression  began  during  her  sojourn  at  a 
bathing  resort.  I  now  maintain  with  certainty 
that  something  must  have  happened  there  which 
had  released  this  "No,"  that  is  to  say,  something 
which  had  brusquely  brought  to  her  attention  her 
feminine  role.  Thereupon  she  related  that  more 
than  a  year  ago  she  had  been  at  another  resort 
where  she  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  young 
man,  who  was  agreeable  to  her,  and  that  tender- 
ness and  kisses  had  followed.  One  evening  the 
young  man  had  fallen  upon  her  as  though  he  were 
insane  and  tried  to  approach  her  in  an  indecent 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  397 

manner.  Whereupon  she  immediately  left  the 
place.  I  call  her  attention  to  the  fact  that  she 
tore  herself  away  at  the  moment  when  the  young 
man  wished  definitely  to  force  her  by  his  be- 
havior into  a  feminine  role  and  added  the  remark 
that  she  must  have  undergone  a  similar  experi- 
ence during  the  present  summer.  She  there- 
upon related  to  me  that  a  guest  at  the  resort 
whose  acquaintance  she  had  made  a  short  time 
previously,  had  conducted  himself  towards  her  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  afore  mentioned  young 
man.  She  left  the  place  just  as  she  had  done 
the  previous  year. 

The  "return  of  the  identical"  (Nietzsche) 
leads  to  the  belief  that  the  patient  must  have  had 
her  part  in  the  play  since  both  times  she  helped 
herself  out  of  the  situation  by  a  neurotic  arrange- 
ment so  as  to  break  off  at  the  same  moment.  In 
this  connection  the  patient  furnished  valuable 
support  in  the  statement  that  the  kisses  ex- 
changed had  not  irritated  her.  I  showed  her  that 
she  acquiesced  as  long  as  the  feminine  role  did 
not  enter  the  question.  I  explained  to  her  that 
her  initial  courage  was  the  masculine  idea  of  con- 
quest in  harmony  with  her  masculine  aim.  At 
this  stage  her  insomnia  vanished.  She  communi- 
cated this  remarkable  improvement  in  her  condi- 
tion with  the  detracting  remark,  that  now  she 
would  like  to  sleep  day  and  night.     Those  who, 


398  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

like  myself,  have  learned  to  recognize  the  tense 
aggressiveness  of  patients  during  the  progress 
of  a  psychotherapeutic  course  of  treatment,  an 
aggressiveness  which  is  directed  against  all  su- 
periors, in  this  instance  against  the  masculine 
physician,  and  who  have  thus  sharpened  their 
perception  for  the  manner  in  which  neurotics  ex- 
press themselves,  will  not  misunderstand  the  ex- 
pression of  our  patient.  The  expression  shows 
distinctly  that  she  has  detected  the  result  of  the 
treatment,  but  that  she  takes  the  trouble  to  de- 
tract with  a  light  touch  from  this  result  and  hence 
from  me.  She  insinuatingly  calls  my  attention 
to  the  fact  that  one  evil  has  only  been  replaced 
by  another. 

More  closely  questioned  the  patient  stated  that 
during  her  four  weeks  of  insomnia  she  had  con- 
stantly thought  during  her  wakeful  nights  how 
worthless  life  was.  We  understand  that  she  did 
not  merely  think  of  it,  but  had  worked  at  it. 
Now  when  the  male  enemy  in  the  form  of  the 
physician,  whom  she  subjects  to  the  same  valua- 
tion as  man  generally,  confronts  her  and  lays 
bare  her  craving  for  security  and  thus  under- 
mines her  effort  to  gain  security  by  means  of  her 
wakefulness,  she  tries,  when  forced  to  sleep,  to 
belittle  him  by  asserting  a  superfluity  of  sleep. 

Neurotic  insomnia  is  a  symbolic  attempt  to  es- 
cape from  the  defenselessness  of  sleep  and  to 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  399 

keep  in  mind  the  securities  against  being  under- 
neath. The  dream  is  another  form  of  this  ef- 
fort, equal  to  a  compromise,  inasmuch  as  it  covers 
as  in  sleep,  the  defenselessness  and  consequent 
feeling  of  inferiority  by  the  masculine  protest. 
The  dream,  according  to  my  observation,  always 
drives  towards  security  and  has  therefore  the 
function  of  forethought.  That  this  is  accom- 
plished through  the  medium  of  facts  from  ex- 
perience is  easily  comprehensible,  and  thus  it  is 
that  in  the  dream  content  and  dream  thoughts 
the  defeats  which  one  has  experienced  come  to 
light,  a  circumstance  which  has  led  Freud  to  the 
formation  of  his  heuristicallv  valuable  but  other- 
wise  imperfect  and  one-sided  theory  of  dreams. 

After  a  prolonged  hesitation  and  after  having 
her  attention  called  to  the  negative  significance 
of  her  hesitation,  the  patient  brought  a  few  days 
later  the  following  dream;  "I  was  in  front  of 
the  'Steinhoff'  {Vienna s  great  insane  asylum). 
I  hurry  past,  as  1  see  a  dark  form  within'' 

In  order  to  avoid  all  artificial  influencing  of 
the  patient,  especially  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
dream,  I  avoid  all  explanations  of  my  dream 
theory  and  only  refer  to  the  fact  that  the  dream 
rouses  trains  of  thoughts  which  betray  again  how 
the  patient  tries  to  secure  herself  against  sleep 
which  is  felt  by  her  to  be  a  defenseless  condition, 
and  which  recalls  to  her  her  defenselessness  in  re- 


400  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

gards  to  life.  In  cases  such  as  the  one  just  given, 
who  wish  above  all  to  discuss  the  fear  of  the  fem- 
inine role,  I  indicate  that  sleep  may  be  felt  as  a 
feminine  situation. 

The  figure  of  speech,  "lying  in  the  arms  of 
Morpheus,"  the  frequent  sensation  of  being  par- 
alyzed, of  being  crushed,  the  analysis  of  night- 
mares, etc.,  and  the  feminine  trends  which  I  am 
able  to  discover  in  all  dreams,  trends  out  of  which 
the  dream  raises  itself  to  the  masculine  protest, 
and  where  furthermore  the  advent  of  sleep- 
banishing  consciousness  awakens  an  individual 
thought-association  suggesting  a  feminine  situa- 
tion, prove  with  certainty  the  fact  that  every 
dream  must  reveal  a  progression  from  femininity 
to  masculinity.  That  not  every  dream  is  of  such 
a  nature  as  to  convince  the  beginner  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  my  conception,  I  have  already  em- 
phasized. This  arises  from  the  fact  that  in  a 
sketch,  and  we  must  regard  the  dream  as  such, 
the  sense  and  meaning  of  mere  traces  of  ideas 
must  be  ferreted  out  and  completed,  a  thing 
which  is  never  difficult  for  the  experienced.  I 
teach  the  patient  that  he  must  regard  the  dream 
as  he  would  the  sketch  of  a  painting,  the  details 
of  which  he  is  obliged  to  fill  in  according  to  his 
impressions. 

After  this  explanation  the  intelligent  patient 
proceeded  unassisted.     "Steinhoff  means  insane. 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  401 

This  point  indicates  that  I  am  on  the  verge  of 
insanity.  But  I  hasten  away.  Then  what  you 
always  tell  me  occurs  to  me,  I  am  running  away 
from  my  feminine  role.  Hence  becoming  insane 
and  the  feminine  role  are  the  same  thing."  I 
now  lead  her  on  to  endeavor  to  force  a  meaning 
into  the  dream,  and  for  this  purpose  make  use  of 
the  patient's  spirit  of  rivalry  which  is  known  to 
me,  in  order  to  excite  her  zeal  when  difficulties 
present  themselves  by  saying,  "Sut  one  certainly 
ought  to  be  able  to  understand  something  under 
that  idea." 

Patient :  "Perhaps  that  it  would  be  insane  to 
play  a  feminine  role?" 

I:  "That  would  be  an  answer  to  a  question. 
What  then  must  the  question  have  been?" 

Patient;  "You  told  me  yesterday,  I  should 
not  be  afraid  of  my  feminine  role." 

I :  "Therefore  an  answer  directed  against  me, 
in  line  with  our  conversations,  a  conflict  against 
the  man.     And  the  black  figure?" 

Patient:     "Perhaps  death ?" 

I:     "Try  now  to  fit  death  into  the  situation." 

This  was  difficult  for  the  patient,  although  it  is 
wholly  clear  that  she  has  taken  the  fear  of  death 
as  a  figure  for  her  flight  from  the  feminine  role, 
in  order  to  present  it  in  a  sufficiently  strong  man- 
ner. The  connection  of  sexuality  and  death  is 
often  spoken  of  in  philosophy  and  poetry.     The 


402  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

analysis  of  neurotics  often  indicate  this  connec- 
tion in  the  sense  of  an  affect-accentuating  "con- 
ditional proposition." 

The  sense  of  the  dream  is  now  shown  to  be  an 
expedient  directed  against  the  physician,  which 
with  our  knowledge  of  the  patient's  phantasy- 
life  should  be  made  to  read:  "It  would  be  in- 
sane to  submit  to  a  man, — equal  to  death."  But 
according  to  her  estimation,  she  had  already  sub- 
mitted by  the  fact  that  she  slept  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  treatment.  This  dream  therefore  re- 
volts against  sleep,  and  her  derogatory  remark 
that  she  would  now  like  to  sleep  day  and  night, 
is  in  line  with  this.  Therefore  the  neurotic  pre- 
dispositions of  this  patient  against  the  possibility 
of  a  man  winning  influence  over  her  is  laid  bare, 
and  it  is  shown  that  the  patient  acted  and 
dreamed  as  though  she  were  conscious  of  her 
guiding  pm'pose.^ 

This  essential  predisposition,  her  tendency  to 
detract,  her  longing  for  victory  over  men  and  her 
neurotic  craving  for  security,  which  stands  men- 
acing in  the  background  with  the  terror  of  death 
and  insanity,  had  also  caused  the  development 
of  the  neurosis  as  a  strengthened  security. 
Through  it  the  patient  is  unfitted  for  life.     The 

1  Richard  Wagner's  genius-like  intuition  in  the  song  of  Erda. 
"My  life  is  dreaming,  my  dreaming  is  thinking,  my  thinking  the 
control  of  knowledge." 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  403 

neurotic  apperception,  which  conjures  up  a  con- 
nection between  love,  insanity  and  death  has 
something  of  the  ring  of  poetry.  How  firmly 
fixed  this  is  in  the  thoughts  of  the  patient  is 
shoAvn  in  her  first  account:  the  young  man  had 
fallen  upon  her  as  though  he  were  insane. 

It  is  often  learned  from  the  anamneses  of  male 
neurotics  that  they  had  been  under  the  influence 
of  a  strong  woman,  mother,  teacher,  sister,  who 
therefore,  instead  of  their  feminine  role  or  in  ad- 
dition thereto,  played  a  masculine  one,  were 
above,  and  to  whom  the  environment  did  not 
deny  recognition,  sometimes  even  disapproba- 
tion, showing  that  they  were  really  regarded  as 
men.  This  circumstance  also  often  tends  to 
strengthen  the  uncertainty  of  the  neurotically 
disposed  child,  who  tries  to  arrive  at  a  conviction 
of  his  manliness  by  understanding  the  sexual  dif- 
ferences. Especially  when  one  endeavors  to 
gain  security  through  knowledge  a  certain  sex 
inquisitiveness  forces  him  to  constantly  seek 
visual  confirmation  of  his  sexual  superiority,  a 
necessity  of  obtaining  definite  knowledge  and 
full  comprehension  of  the  female  organs  which 
approaches  the  masculine  guiding  line  more 
nearly,  in  proportion  as  it  is  created  out  of  prep- 
arations for  the  future. 

His  pathological  uncertainty  adheres  to  the 
neurotic  as  a  pretext  and  confirmation  of  his 


404  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

fear  of  woman  even  after  he  is  married,  so  that 
the  expression  is  often  heard,  that  the  feminine 
sexual  apparatus,  the  condition  of  virginity, 
legitimacy  of  children,  fatherhood,  is  a  mystery 
just  as  a  woman  herself  is.  Along  with  this  de- 
sire to  obtain  satisfaction  through  visual  percep- 
tion of  the  female  organs,  there  is  at  times  as- 
sociated in  neurotically  disposed  children  a  sort 
of  sinister  feeling  of  danger,  as  though  obscure 
thoughts  arose  in  the  mind  of  the  boy  that  his 
future  life,  his  victory  or  defeat  were  dependent 
upon  the  solution  he  has  reached  concerning  the 
sexual  question.  It  is  in  the  nature  of  things, 
that  frequently  the  opportunity  for  this  sort  of 
visual  confirmation  is  only  offered  when  the 
woman  occupies  a  position  above  the  boy.  Even 
this  small  circumstance  forms,  as  I  have  re- 
peatedly stated,  a  figurative  representation  of  the 
feminine  superiority  in  the  phantasy  of  the  neu- 
rotic individual  who  stands  in  fear  of  woman. 
Ganghofer  and  Stendhal  give  accounts  in  the  his- 
torjT^  of  their  childhood  of  these  terrifying  experi- 
ences which,  it  is  thought  left  behind  permanent 
traces.  The  terror  was  in  itself  already  a  secu- 
rity of  the  injured  masculine  prestige,  and  the 
exciting  scene  remained  as  an  admonition,  to  be 
understood  figuratively,  of  caution  in  regard  to 
women.  Frequently  the  derogatory  tendency 
sets  in  at  the  point  where  the  superiority  of 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  405 

woman  assumes  a  threatening  aspect  and  leads  to 
a  comparison  of  male  and  female  advantages  and 
disadvantages.  The  abstract  and  figurative  rep- 
resentation of  the  inferiority  of  woman,  in 
dreams,  phantasies,  wit  and  science,  frequently 
resorts  to  the  mode  of  expression  of  a  lost  mem- 
ber, of  supernumerary  cavities.  One  of  my  pa- 
tients who  suffered  from  vertigo  had  a  dream  one 
time  following  an  unusually  stormy  scene  with 
his  wife  which  summarily  and  essentially  brought 
about  a  degradation  of  his  domineering  wife. 

"The  picture  of  a  birch  trunk  emerged.  At 
one  point  there  was  a  branch  with  a  round  swell- 
ing. There  a  twig  had  fallen  off  and  I  had  the 
impression  as  though  this  was  a  female  genital 
organ." 

I  have  already  discussed  such  dreams,  as  have 
others  also.  To  me  such  dreams  represent  figur- 
atively the  question  concerning  the  differences  of 
sex,  which  is  answered  after  the  manner  of  chil- 
dren that  the  girl  is  a  boy  who  has  been  deprived 
of  the  male  organ.  The  above  dream  fits  into  the 
psychic  situation  of  the  dreamer,  inasmuch  as  it 
reveals  the  thought,  "I  am  a  man  who  has  been 
deprived  of  manliness,  who  is  weak  and  ill,  who 
is  in  danger  of  being  under,  of  falling  beneath." 
Now  he  has  the  basis  of  operation,  he  beholds  his 
prestige  diminished  and  takes  breath,  for  the  ef- 


406  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

fort  again  to  regain  power.  The  masculine  pro- 
test now  sets  in  in  waking  hours  as  tyranny,  out- 
breaks of  rage  and  acts  of  infidehty. 

It  might  be  mentioned  in  this  connection  that 
one  often  hears  from  neurotics  that  in  moments 
of  personal  danger  or  when  they  are  threatened 
with  defeat,  they  perceive  a  shortening  or  con- 
traction of  the  genitals,  at  times  also  a  feeling  of 
pain  which  forcibly  impels  them  to  a  termination 
of  the  situation.^  These  phenomena  most  fre- 
quently accompany  states  of  anxiety  in  high 
places  where  there  is  fear  of  falling.  The  short- 
ening of  the  genitals  in  the  bath  nearly  always 
causes  a  reaction  in  the  neurotic  individual.  He 
feels  out  of  sorts  and  at  times  experiences  pres- 
sure in  the  head. 

I  have  abeady  emphasized  that  homosexuality 
as  a  tendency  and  behavior  is  the  result  of  the 
fear  of  the  opposite  sex.  In  addition  it  may 
be  briefly  mentioned  that  the  over-valuation 
of  the  homosexual  partner  serves  also  to  raise 
the  neurotic  invert  in  his  own  estimation.  In 
neuroses  homosexuality  even  when  carried  into 
practice  is  always  found  to  be  a  sjTnbol  by  means 
of  which  it  is  sought  to  place  the  individual's  own 

2  At  times  this  feeling  of  pressure  extends  to  the  abdomen,  to 
the  breast  and  cardiac  region — or  affects  only  these  regions,  at 
times  pollutions  take  place  as  reactive  symbols  of  the  masculine 
goal. 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  407 

superiority  beyond  question.  This  mechanism  is 
similar  to  that  of  a  rehgious  psychosis  in  which 
the  nearness  of  God  has  the  significance  of  an 
elevation. 

One  of  the  forms  which  the  fear  of  woman  is 
especially  likely  to  take  is  syphilophobia.  The 
train  of  thought  of  such  phobists  ( Adler,  syphilid- 
ophobia,  1.  c.)  is  usually  the  following:  They 
fear  that  they  will  not  be  able  to  play  a  dominat- 
ing part  in  regard  to  woman  because  of  some  feel- 
ing of  inferiority,  for  which  they  have  ready  all 
sorts  of  foundations,  at  times  without  conscious 
motivation.  In  this  manner,  following  the  in- 
creasing trend  to  belittle  woman,  they  arrive  at 
suspicious  trains  of  thought  which  are  to  se- 
cure them  against  sexual  relations.  Sometimes 
woman  is  a  riddle,  sometimes  a  criminal  being, 
always  thinking  of  adornment  and  expense  and 
sexually  insatiable.  The  suspicions  constantly 
arise  that  a  girl  is  only  hunting  for  support,  is 
bent  on  capturing  the  man,  is  crafty  and  cunning 
and  always  bent  on  evil.  These  trains  of  thought 
are  universal  and  are  found  at  all  periods  of  his- 
tory. They  emerge  in  the  most  sublime  and  the 
lowest  creations  of  art,  have  a  place  in  the 
thoughts  and  efforts  of  the  wisest,  and  create  in 
man  and  in  society  a  constant  predisposition 
which  develops  suspicious  and  cautious  traits,  in 
order  to  always  keep  in  touch  with  the  enemy  and 


408  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

to  be  in  good  time  for  the  defense  against  knavish 
attacks.  It  is  an  error  to  think  that  it  is  only  the 
man  who  harbors  distrust  of  his  sexual  partner. 
The  same  trait  is  found  also  in  the  woman,  often 
less  distinct  in  character,  when  fictions  of  her  own 
strength  put  a  check  to  the  doubt  of  her  own 
value,  but  flashing  up  most  strongly,  when  the 
feeling  of  degradation  becomes  overpowering. 

In  the  disputes  of  pious  savants  of  the  middle 
ages,  questions  arose  as  to  whether  woman  had  a 
soul,  whether  she  was  a  human  being,  and  the 
general  prevalence  of  similar  thoughts  is  re- 
flected in  the  insane  burning  of  witches  in  the  cen- 
tm'ies  following  to  which  government,  church 
and  the  blinded  populace  lent  a  hand.  This  de- 
traction from  women  in  hate  as  well  as  in  love 
which  recurs  constantly  in  Christian,  Jewish  and 
Mohammedan  religious  usages,  break  out  irre- 
sistibly in  the  timorous,  uncertain  man  and  so 
completely  fills  the  world  of  thought  of  the  neu- 
rotic, that  the  most  accentuated  trait  of  character 
in  the  neurotic  psyche  is  found  to  be  the  tendency 
to  detract  from  the  sexual  partner.  Thus  the 
outposts  which  offer  security  to  the  ego-con- 
sciousness become  established  and  the  peculiar 
play  of  the  neurotic  traits  of  character  begins. 
Continuous  testing,  feeling,  attempts  to  subju- 
gate, to  find  fault  with  and  to  degrade  the  part- 
ner set  in,  always  favored  by  the  fact  that  at- 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  409 

tention  and  interest  is  directed  to  a  single  pur- 
pose, to  keep  in  touch  with  the  enemy  and  to  pre- 
vent a  surprise.  As  long  as  the  tendency  to  de- 
traction with  its  outward  expressions,  distrust, 
fear,  jealousy,  tyranny  exists  there  is  no  hope  of 
a  cure  of  the  neurotic.  As  we  have  seen  worthy 
creations  of  art  and  literature  which  have  received 
recognition  on  all  sides  owe  their  origin  to  this 
tendency.  From  the  "Lysistrata"  to  the  "kreu- 
zel  writers"  leads  the  same  path  as  from  the 
Gorgo  Medusa  to  the  Syphilis  fad,  which  arose 
before  the  eyes  of  Lenans  or  Ganghofer.  The 
guiding  line  which  prevails  in  Tolstoi's  Kreuzer 
Sonata  and  which  strives  after  the  degradation 
of  woman  was  perceptible  even  in  his  boyhood 
when  he  shoved  his  future  bride  out  of  the  win- 
dow. An  old  guiding  line  which  is  revealed  in 
the  myth  of  the  poison-girl  ^  of  antiquity,  in  the 
middle  ages  and  in  the  beginning  of  modern 
times  in  the  fear  of  witches,  demons,  vampires 
and  sprites  has  undergone  a  change  of  form  and 
has  become  the  syphilophobia  of  to-day.  Poggio 
relates  of  a  man  who  had  violated  a  girl.  The 
girl  changed  into  a  devil  and  vanished  with  a 
stench. 

All  these  trains  of  thought  returning  in  the 
same  manner  as  they  do  in  the  dream  and  in  the 

3  Wilhelm  Hertz,  "The  Myth  of  the  Poison-girl."     Abh.  d.  bayer 
Akademie  der  Wissenschaften,  1897. 


410  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

psyche  of  the  neurotic,  reveal  the  cautious  man, 
doubtful  of  his  manliness,  who  seeks  to  secure 
himself  from  real  life  just  as  much  by  the  setting 
up  of  scarecrows  as  by  the  fear  he  has  of  this 
life  itself,  because  of  the  veneration  of  an  ideal. 

The  bantering  note  in  such  an  attitude  toward 
woman  is  of  little  significance  in  so  far  as  our 
view  is  concerned.  It  shows  moreover  an  effort 
to  be  guilty  of  no  exaggeration,  to  preserve  de- 
corum and  to  save  one's  self  from  ridicule  by  a 
spirit  of  wit.  The  case  is  similar  to  that  of  Gogol 
whose  strong  craving  for  security  is  perceptible 
in  every  vein  of  his  poetry.  In  his  "Jahrmarkt 
von  Sorotschinsk"  ^  he  makes  a  character  say, 
"Lord  in  heaven,  why  dost  thou  punish  us  poor 
sinners  so?  There  is  already  so  much  trouble, 
why  didst  thou  also  send  women  into  the  world?" 
In  the  "Dead  Souls"  of  this  great  poet,  who  was 
neurotic  during  his  entire  life,  suffered  from 
compulsory  masturbation  and  died  in  a  mad 
house,  he  makes  his  hero  reflect  on  seeing  a  young 
girl: 

"A  superb  little  woman!  The  best  about  her 
is  that  she  seems  to  have  just  come  out  of  a  board- 
ing school  or  institute  and  as  yet  has  none  of 
those  special  feminine  traits  that  disfigure  the 
whole  sex.  She  is  still  a  pure  child,  everything 
about  her  is  straight-forward  and  simple;  she 

4  From  O.  Kaus,  "The  Case  of  Gogol,"  Munchen,  Reinhardt,  1912. 


FEAR  OF  THE  PARTNER,  ETC.  411 

speaks  from  her  heart  and  laughs  when  she  feels 
like  it.  All  possibilities  lie  in  her  nature;  she 
may  become  a  superb  creature  but  she  may  be- 
come a  stunted  being  and  that  will  probably  be 
the  result  when  the  aunts  and  mammas  set  them- 
selves to  educate  her.  They  will  stuff  her  so  full 
of  their  woman's  nonsense  in  a  year  that  her  own 
father  would  no  longer  recognize  her.  She  will 
acquire  a  pompous  and  affected  nature,  will  turn 
and  move  and  courtesy  according  to  rules  learned 
by  heart,  rack  her  brains  over  the  questions,  what 
to  say,  how  much  to  say,  and  with  whom  to  speak, 
and  how  she  shall  look  at  her  cavalier,  etc.,  she 
will  constantly  be  in  the  greatest  anxiety  lest  she 
may  have  spoken  some  superfluous  word,  and 
finally  will  no  longer  know  what  she  ought  to  do 
and  will  go  wandering  through  life,  a  great  lie. 
Fie!  the  devil! —  For  the  rest  I  would  like  to 
know,  of  what  sort  she  is!" 


CHAPTER  IX 

SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  CONTRITION 
AND  ASCETICISM,  FLAGELLATION,  NEUROSES 
IN  CHILDREN ;  SUICIDE  AND  SUICIDAL  IDEAS 

Under  the  forms  of  the  neurotic  lines  of  con- 
duct for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  masculine 
protest,  trends  of  self-execration,  self-reproach, 
self-torture  and  suicide  appear  in  marked  accent- 
uation. Our  astonishment  loses  in  force  as  soon 
as  we  see  that  the  whole  arrangement  of  the  neu- 
rosis follows  the  trait  of  self-torture,  that  the  neu- 
rosis is  a  self-torturing  expedient  whose  purpose 
it  is  to  enhance  the  feeling  of  personal  esteem. 
In  fact,  the  first  stirrings  of  the  aggressive  ten- 
dency which  is  directed  against  the  individual's 
own  person,  originate  in  the  child  from  a  situa- 
tion in  which  the  child  through  disease,  death, 
shame  and  all  sorts  of  constructed  deficiencies 
seeks  to  prepare  pain  for  the  parents  or  to  keep 
himself  in  their  mind.  This  trait  already  char- 
acterizes the  neurotically  disposed  child  who  has 
formed  expedients  out  of  the  reminiscences  of  the 
phenomena  of  somatic  inferiority  and  out  of  their 
significance  for  the  maximation  of  the  ego-con- 

412 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.       413 

sciousness,  for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  ten- 
derness and  interest  of  the  parents.  The  devel- 
oped neurosis  builds  up  these  expedients  and  in- 
troduces their  activity  through  a  reinforcement 
of  the  fiction,  as  soon  as  this  is  demanded  by  the 
growing  feeling  of  insecurity.  It  is  well  known 
how  strong  exacerbations  take  a  hand  in  this, 
liow  the  hallucinatory  character,  the  anticipatory 
force  of  the  neurotic  assists  in  this  and  how  the 
situation  of  the  attack  and  the  disturbances  of 
health  with  the  resultant  dominancy  over  the  en- 
vironment takes  place.  Paradoxical  as  it  may 
seem  at  first  glance  the  neurotic  is  only  at  peace 
when  he  has  an  attack  behind  him.  Janet  has 
already  called  attention  to  this  fact;  I  can  only 
add  as  the  basis  for  it  that  it  is  because  he  has 
then  gained  the  security  of  his  superiority,  if  only 
for  a  short  time. 

The  trait  of  character  of  wishing  to  excel  all 
others  is  also  contained  in  the  feeling  to  which 
the  neurotic  constantly  gives  expression,  that  he 
excels  all  others  in  pain.  He  uses  this  convic- 
tion because  it  furnishes  him  with  a  basis  of  oper- 
ation for  feeling  himself  in  opposition  to  others, 
for  avoiding  a  decision  or  for  making  an  attack. 
Thus  it  happens  also  that  attacks,  pains,  or  a  dis- 
ease are  w^ished  for,  when  the  situation  demands 
it.  Sometimes  the  wish  alone  serves  the  purpose 
of  an  attack,  w^hen  as  a  reminder  it  already  ter- 


414  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

rifles  the  environment.  For  the  patient's  own 
psyche  it  is  at  times  sufficient,  as  a  female  patient 
once  told  me,  if  a  phantasy  is  formed  as  result  of 
which  the  neurotic  suffers  pain  through  the  acts 
of  another.  This  brings  about  the  feeling  of 
suppression  or  mistreatment,  awakens  the  crav- 
ing for  security  and  introduces  the  masculine 
protest. 

The  significance  of  the  feeling  of  guilt,  of  the 
conscience  and  self-reproaches  as  forms  of  secur- 
ity-giving fictions  has  already  been  described. 
Not  rarely  one  finds  in  the  psychology  of  mas- 
turbation an  admixture  of  traits  of  atonement  and 
of  a  desii'e  to  harm,  the  latter  to  be  likened  to  an 
obstinate  revolt  against  the  parents,  the  former 
as  a  cheap  pretext  or  sanctimonious  act. 

The  injuring  of  others  through  atonement  is 
one  of  the  most  subtle  expedients  of  the  neurotic, 
for  example  when  he  launches  forth  in  self- 
curses.  Ideas  of  suicide  often  reveal  the  same 
mechanism,  which  is  clearly  seen  in  joint  suicides. 
When  one  of  my  patients  was  treated  by  another 
physician  with  cold  douches  for  impotence,  he 
expressed  the  wish  "that  the  physician  might 
tear,  injure  his  genitals."  When  two  years  be- 
fore he  suffered  great  losses  in  business  he  wished 
to  corr,  nit  suicide,  although  he  was  still  a  rich 
man.  The  motive  force  of  these  execrations 
(v.  Shylock)  is  neurotic  avarice.     The  analysis 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.       415 

offers  a  complete  explanation.  In  order  to  pro- 
tect himself  from  expenses  for  girls  he  execrates 
himself  also  when  he  is  obliged  to  pay  physicians' 
fees.  This  is  certainly  accompanied  by  a  half 
conscious  feeling  that  his  wishes  need  not  be  ab- 
solutely fulfilled.  He  execrates  especially  his 
levity  for  this  is  the  meaning  of  his  self-re- 
proaches and  execrations,  when  he  has  paid  a 
large  account  or  ought  to  pay  one.  Then  every 
small  expense  disturbs  him. 

He  fears  the  charm  of  sexuality.  Even  his 
own  sister  he  would  like  to  throw  into  misfortune, 
or  his  sister's  daughter,  both  of  whom  lived  with 
him.  At  the  same  time  he  must  have  estimated 
his  execrations  as  of  very  little  importance  or 
perhaps  even  expected  the  opposite.  This  is 
shown  by  the  great  number  of  his  measures  for 
security,  among  which  the  self-execrations  only 
played  an  insignificant  part.  He  secures  him- 
self to  a  much  greater  extent  through  the  ar- 
rangement of  impotence.  Self-detraction  and 
self-torture  our  patient  constructed  in  the  same 
manner  as  hypochondria,  in  order  to  hold  before 
his  eyes  the  feeling  of  his  own  inferiority,  to  feel 
himself  too  weak,  too  small,  too  unworthy. 
They  appear  as  hindrances  and  in  this  way  take 
the  place  of  doubts.  Neurotic  girls  who  fear  the 
man,  who  do  not  wish  to  play  a  feminine  role, 
worry  constantly  over  their  growth  of  hair,  their 


416  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

birth  marks  and  fear  their  children  might  be 
similarly  deformed.  In  many  cases  they  were 
homely  children  or  were  slighted  for  a  preferred 
brother  when  they  were  small  girls.  In  one  of 
my  female  patients  with  a  compulsion  nem-osis, 
her  compulsory  thought  was  revealed  as  belief  in 
an  enlargement  of  the  pores  of  her  skin,  to  be 
understood  symbolically  as  a  security  against  the 
feminine  role.  Another  form  of  self-torture  is 
manifested  in  the  tendency  to  atonements. 
They  may  be  recognized  as  simple  cravings  for 
security  when  it  is  taken  into  consideration  that 
these  i^atients  seek  just  as  little  as  those  with  the 
allied  feeling  of  remorse  for  the  past,  to  change 
or  better  things  in  the  future. 

The  symptom  clearly  aims  at  the  future,  and 
this  just  as  much  when  it  reveals  itself  as  of  per- 
sonal emotion  in  individual  form  and  conduct  as 
when  it  is  revealed  socially  in  religious  perform- 
ances. As  in  all  forms  of  craving  for  security, 
in  this  case  too,  it  is  not  at  all  excluded  that  re- 
cently experienced  evil  thoughts  and  acts  come 
to  light.  Its  purpose  is  to  become  effective  as  a 
restraining  admonition  and  to  serve  as  proof  of 
the  worthy  intentions  of  the  one  concerned.  Not 
last  of  all  in  this  self-inspection  is  the  impulse  to 
atonement  and  the  emphasis  of  inner  good  quali- 
ties wherein  the  contrast  to  other  people  is  al- 
ways thought  of,  so  much  so,  that  the  tendency 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.      417 

to  atonement  and  remorse  at  times  betrays  a 
strongly  antagonistic,  intractable,  inimical  note. 
The  epidemic  character  of  acts  of  atonement  is 
scarcely  ever  without  this  pomp,  people  vie  with 
each  other  in  crying  out,  in  weeping,  in  self-tor- 
ture and  contrition. 

The  possibility  therefore  of  gaining  a  feeling 
of  superiority  by  means  of  fasting  and  praying, 
wearing  of  sack  cloth  and  ashes,  etc.,  will  have  a 
charm  for  weak  souls  as  soon  as  they  have  the  in- 
clination to  appear  pious  and  good,  religious  and 
sublime.  And  asceticism  will  lead  to  an  eleva- 
tion when  it  is  felt  as  a  triumph,  in  my  sense,  as 
a  masculine  protest.  That  in  all  this  there  is 
only  an  arbitrary  valuation,  in  which  frequently 
the  contrast  to  otherwise  superior  people  is  taken 
as  the  point  of  departure,  is  revealed  in  the  coun- 
terparts to  the  God  fearing  type,  in  atheists,  mili- 
tant free  thinkers  and  iconoclasts  who  seek  to 
demonstrate  their  superiority  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  former.  Lichtenberg's  expression  is  to  be 
understood  in  this  sense  when  he  remarks,  how 
rare  are  the  people  who  live  up  to  the  principles 
of  their  religion,  and  how  numerous  those  who 
fight  for  them.  The  conversion  from  militant 
free  thinking  to  orthodoxy  is  not  rare  as  is  also 
not  rare  the  conversion  from  Epicurianism  to 
Asceticism. 

Along  with  this  craving  for  security  by  means 


418  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  atonement  the  masculine  protest  plays  a  role 
as  a  guide  which  should  not  be  underestimated. 
But  one  must  still  keep  in  sight  the  building  ma- 
terial, the  possibilities  dormant  in  the  psyche,  of 
which  it  makes  use  in  order  to  reach  expression. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  along  with  this,  acts  and 
thoughts  of  self -subjection  come  to  light,  that  is, 
masochistic  elements,  which  according  to  our  way 
of  looking  at  the  subject  are  estimated  as  fem- 
inine elements  of  the  masculine  psyche.  How 
incompatible  these  are  with  the  consciousness  of 
mankind  and  the  fact  that  thev  constantly  de- 
mand  a  change  of  direction  in  the  masculine  pro- 
test, that  therefore,  they  are  pseudo-masochistic 
phenomena,  is  seen  from  the  fact  that  this  sub- 
jection is  connected  with  a  soaring,  an  elevation. 
The  lines  of  force  also  in  this  case  were  from  be- 
low upwards  because  the  person  who  has  made 
atonement  feels  himself  elevated  or  cleansed,  he 
speaks  with  his  God,  he  comes  nearer  to  him  than 
others,  than  at  other  times,  and  "joy  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven  awaits  him." 

One  of  my  patients  "punished  herself"  after 
the  death  of  her  mother,  72  years  of  age,  with 
whom  she  had  always  lived  at  strife  and  to  whom 
she  would  have  been  justified  in  making  re- 
proaches, by  deep  feelings  of  remorse  because  of 
her  indifference  for  her  mother,  and  by  sleepless- 
ness.    Her  feelings  of  remorse  had  the  character 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.      419 

of  compulsory  tlioiights  and  compulsory  acts. 
The  analysis  showed  that  she  wished  to  prove  her 
moral  superiority  over  a  sister.  The  sister  was 
married,  while  our  patient  was  tempted  to  enter 
into  a  liaison  with  a  married  man  which  experi- 
ence she  felt  as  a  degradation.  She  was,  there- 
fore, according  to  her  o^\ti  opinion  degraded  in 
contrast  to  her  sister.  On  the  occasion  of  the 
death  of  her  mother  the  masculine  protest  gave 
rise  to  a  situation  which  again  brought  her  up- 
permost, namely,  her  stronger  grief  for  the  sad 
event. 

In  the  history  of  civilization  as  in  the  neurosis, 
the  tendency  to  atonement  not  rarely  degener- 
ates into  scourging,  flagellation,  etc.  From  the 
confessions  of  Rousseau  and  from  private  com- 
munications of  healthy  as  well  as  neurotic  indi- 
viduals, and  furthermore  from  good  observations 
of  the  behavior  of  children,  as  for  example  B. 
Asnaurow's,  we  know  that  in  certain  individuals 
blows  are  capable  of  arousing  sexual  excitations. 
This  is  the  real,  somatically  perceptible  moment 
which  exists  in  the  makeup  of  these  individuals 
and  which  determines  the  choice  of  a  particular 
form  of  atonement.  Patients  have  told  me  that 
in  their  childhood  they  experienced  pleasure  from 
blows  on  their  buttocks,  though  it  was  terrible  to 
them  to  be  beaten.  In  the  later  life  of  these 
neurotics  flagellation  analogously  with  masturba- 


420  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

tion  and  all  other  forms  of  perversions  is  the 
visible  expression  of  the  fear  of  the  opposite  part- 
ner. I  am  indebted  to  a  patient  for  the  follow- 
ing communication.  She  had  come  under  my 
care  for  severe  migraine.  Several  years  before 
the  onset  of  the  treatment  she  was  subject  to  day- 
phantasies  in  which  she  saw  herself  detected  in  an 
act  of  infidelity  and  punished  by  a  man  to  whom 
she  thought  herself  married  but  who  did  not  re- 
semble her  real  husband.  As  a  sequel  to  this 
phantasy  there  followed  a  severe  self-scourg- 
ing until  she  fell  exhausted.  This  flagellation 
brought  about  intense  sexual  emotions.  The 
analysis  revealed  that  this  woman  hated  her  hus- 
band, a  neurotic  hatred,  and  in  this  hatred  would 
have  readily  committed  an  act  of  infidelity  in 
order  to  humiliate  him  thereby.  Now  she  has 
gotten  to  be  too  old  to  be  of  any  worth  in  sex 
matters,  while  in  former  years  she  was  hindered 
by  the  masculine  protest.  For  a  short  time  be- 
fore she  thought  of  flagellation,  she  played  with 
phantasies  of  infidelity,  but  not  without  securing 
herself  against  a  realization.  The  detection  by 
the  husband,  the  flagellation  and  consequent 
auto-erotic  gratification,  all  of  this  had  its  origin 
in  the  anticipatory  craving  for  security  and  is  but 
a  play  of  phantasy  which  emphasizes  in  an  espe- 
cially strong  manner  the  fear  of  the  man.  The 
substitution  of  her  husband  by  another  is  the  re- 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.   421 

suit  of  her  derogatory  tendency  and  equivalent 
to  her  wishes  of  infidelity,  her  husband  is  to  be 
humiliated,  another  would  be  preferred  in  his 
stead.  Continuing,  she  disavows  this  plausible 
assumption  through  an  act  of  infidelity  to  this 
other  one.  In  the  course  of  years  she  gave  up 
this  flagellation.  The  derogatory  tendency, 
however,  is  directed  more  vehemently  against  her 
husband  as  well  as  against  all  mankind.  She  de- 
veloped migraine  as  soon  as  she  feared  that  she 
was  losing  hold  of  her  domineering  role  over  any 
one.  Her  disease  succeeded  too  in  enabling  her 
to  withdraw  completely  from  society.  Within 
her  family  circle  she  was  absolute  mistress  as  a 
result  of  her  illness.  She  succeeded  also  in  de- 
grading in  a  large  measure  her  various  family 
physicians,  inasmuch  as  her  migraine  remained 
unimproved  in  spite  of  all  their  treatment. 
Even  morphine  failed  in  its  effect,  and  I  might 
recommend  that  a  perverse  reaction  to  this  rem- 
edy in  any  case  should  receive  special  attention. 
I  mention  incidentally,  as  a  supplement  to  the 
termination  of  the  treatment  that  she  also  placed 
great  obstacles  in  the  way  of  my  form  of  therapy 
and  for  a  long  time  sought  to  expose  me  by  re- 
taining her  pain  even  when  openly  flattering  me. 
Patients  recover  as  soon  as  they  understand  that 
this  motive  of  adhering  to  their  disease  is  for  the 
purpose  of  humiliating  the  physician. 


422  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Incidentally,  I  will  refer  to  the  fact  that  ac- 
cording to  my  experience,  "religious  insanity," 
phantasies  and  hallucinations  of  God,  heaven  and 
the  saints,  as  well  as  the  feeling  of  being  crushed 
are  to  be  understood  as  infantile  megalomanic 
ideas  of  these  patients  and  as  an  expression  of 
their  feeling  of  superiority  over  their  environ- 
ment. There  is  often  connected  with  this  a  hos- 
tile feeling  against  the  environment,  as  is  the  case 
when  a  catatonic  permits  himself  to  be  com- 
manded by  God  to  give  his  attendant  a  box  on 
the  ear  or  to  overturn  a  bed  or  a  table,  or  when 
he  tries  to  compel  his  Jewish  relatives  to  submit 
to  baptism.  The  soaring  in  manics,  the  dements' 
grandiose  ideas  are  parallel  phenomena  and  in- 
dicate the  buried  feeling  of  humiliation  which 
demands  over-compensation  in  the  psycho- 
sis.^ 

In  practice  physicians  often  come  across  chil- 
dren who  aggravate  sjinptoms  and  simulate  in 
order  to  escape  oppression  at  the  hands  of  their 
parents.  How  closely  these  phenomena  border 
on  unfaithfulness  without  entirely  coinciding 
with  it  is  self-apparent.  Remarkable,  however, 
is  the  concomitant  manifestation  of  signs  of  som- 

iPaul  Bjerre  ("Zur  Radicalbehandlung  der  chronischen  Para- 
noia," Wien  und  Leipzig,  Deuticke,  1912)  was  the  first  to  describe 
in  a  convincing  manner  the  significance  of  the  masctdine  protest 
and  of  the  craving  for  security  in  the  psychosis. 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.   423 

atic  inferiority,  as  well  as  the  emergence  of  the 
neurotic  character-development,  and  hence  the 
neurotic  disposition.  As  examples,  three  cases 
of  observations  df  neurotic  children  are  given. 

A  seven  years  old  girl  came  under  my  care  for 
periodical  attacks  of  gastric  pain  and  nausea. 
We  found  a  frail,  poorly  developed  child  who 
suffered  from  struma  cystica,  adenoids  and  en- 
larged tonsils.  Her  voice  had  a  hoarse  intona- 
tion. Upon  inquiry  her  mother  stated  that  the 
child  often  suffered  from  catarrhal  troubles  ac- 
companied by  a  cough,  which  were  unusually 
protracted,  as  well  as  from  protracted  attacks  of 
dyspepsia.  Her  present  complaint  had  existed 
about  a  half  year,  without  any  demonstrable  or- 
ganic affection.  Along  with  this  her  appetite 
and  bowel  functions  remained  normal.  The 
gastric  pains  developed  since  the  girl  began  at- 
tending school.  Her  progress  in  school  was  an 
excellent  one,  but  the  teacher  had  repeatedly  ex- 
pressed wonder  over  the  striking  ambitiousness 
of  the  child.  She  was  very  sensitive  about  ad- 
monitions and  felt  herself  slighted  for  a  sister 
who  was  three  and  one-half  years  her  junior. 
What  especially  attracted  her  mother's  attention 
was  a  definite  lengthening  of  the  clitoris,  one  of 
the  genital  anomalies,  the  importance  of  which  as 
a  sign  of  inferiority  I  have  already  emphasized 
here,  and  which  was  later  on  discovered  by  Bartel 


424  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

and  Kyrle  and  emphasized  by  them  as  very  char- 
acteristic. Her  skin  was  everywhere  hypersensi- 
tive, and  the  tickling  reflex  noticeably  accentu- 
ated. The  child  frequently  asked  to  be  tickled. 
The  child's  anxiousness  exceeded  the  normal. 
The  irregularity  of  the  incisors  is  to  be  looked 
upon  as  a  further  indication  of  a  somatic  inferior- 
ity, which  points  to  a  defect  of  the  gastro-intesti- 
nal  tract.  The  pharyngeal  reflex  was  definitely 
exaggerated. 

One  gains  the  impression  from  this  ensemble 
of  phenomena,  that  the  reflex  activity  of  the  ali- 
mentary canal  was  likewise  exaggerated.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  child  had  vomited  frequently 
during  the  first  three  years  of  her  life.  The  fre- 
quent dyspeptic  attacks  likewise  indicate  an  in- 
feriority of  the  gastro-intestinal  tract.  Along 
with  this  she  had  suffered  for  about  a  vear  from 
eczema  of  the  buttocks, — at  the  termination  of 
the  inferior  alimentary  canal,  with  itching  which 
lasted  for  several  months  and  which  was  cured  by 
the  family  physician  by  means  of  suggestion  and 
with  the  assistance  of  a  neutral  salve. 

The  painful  pressure  in  the  stomach  proved  to 
be  a  psychic  reflex  which  set  in  whenever  the  child 
feared  a  humiliation  at  school  or  at  home.^ 

2  R.  stern  has  described  similar  phenomena,  of  which  we  have 
already  spoken  frequently  in  this  book,  as  preactive  tensions 
(practive  Spannungen).  According  to  my  conception  we  are 
dealing  here  with  a  planful,  albeit  unconscious  utilization  of  reflex 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.   425 

The  purpose  of  this  reflex  which  had  been  con- 
structed on  the  basis  of  somatic  inferiority  lay  in 
the  effort  to  avoid  punishment  and  to  direct  the 
attention  of  the  somewhat  harsh  mother  who  pre- 
ferred the  younger  girl.  After  the  inner  per- 
ception of  this  heightened  reflex  activity,  there 
was  obviously  fixation  and  aggravation  as  soon 
as  the  child  sought  a  guiding  idea  which  she  could 
use  for  the  purpose  of  maximating  her  ego-con- 
sciousness. On  account  of  the  brevity  of  the 
treatment  I  was  able  to  discover  no  spontaneous 
expressions  of  traces  of  ideas  concerning  a  future 
gravidity,  as  the  anticipated  destiny  of  a  fem- 
inine role.  The  attacks  vanished  after  a  short 
time,  after  I  had  explained  the  connection  to  the 
child.  A  dream  after  one  of  these  attacks  points 
in  the  above  described  direction.     She  dreamed: 

"My  friend  was  below.  Then  we  played  with 
each  other/' 

Her  friend  was  a  preferred  rival  in  the  school. 
Conflicts  often  resulted,  without  blows  however. 
She  lived  on  the  floor  above  and  they  always 
played  in  the  apartment  of  the  patient.  But  the 
form  of  expression  in  the  dream  she  related  was 
sufficiently  remarkable.  When  I  asked  this  in- 
telligent child  if  one  would  say  "her  friend  was 

irritability   of  inferior  organs,  with  intelligent  reflexes    ("Intell- 
gente  Reflexe"). 


426  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

below"  when  the  person  who  related  the  story- 
was  playing  with  her,  she  connected  herself  im- 
mediately, and  said  "she  was  with  me."  But  we 
will  assume  that  the  fonn  of  expression  is  right 
and  the  accent  is  on  the  "below,"  then  behind  this 
is  concealed  the  thought  that  the  rival  was  under 
the  ambitious  patient  as  in  a  conflict.  "The 
friend  was  below"  then  means  "I  was  above,"  a 
conception  as  result  of  which  we  are  able  to  de- 
fine the  standpoint  of  the  patient.  The  "then" 
also  points  in  the  same  direction.  It  only  has 
meaning  when  we  assume  that  there  is  an  inter- 
val between  the  two  dream  pictures,  such  as  per- 
haps: "I  must  first  be  superior  to  my  friend, 
then  I  will  play  with  her." 

The  history  which  preceded  the  attack  which 
followed  furnished  a  confirmation  of  our  concep- 
tion. The  game  of  the  two  girls  was  as  a  rule 
playing  "father  and  mother"  or  "playing  doc- 
tor." In  the  first  game  there  was  a  quarrel  be- 
tween the  two  girls  as  to  who  should  be  "father" 
until  the  father  finally  took  a  hand  and  re- 
proached the  patient  that  her  companion  was  al- 
ways more  yielding  than  she,  which  was  the  truth. 
The  friend  thereupon  received  the  part  of  father. 
When  the  family  shortly  afterwards  seated  them- 
selves at  the  table,  the  child  was  seized  with  an 
attack.  She  ate  nothing  and  was  put  to  bed 
and  in  fact  in  her  parents'  room,  where  at  other 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.      427 

times  her  other  rival  slept,  her  little  sister.  The 
dream  now  expresses  a  continuation  of  the  same 
tendency  which  was  served  by  the  attack  and  fur- 
nishes us  a  hint  concerning  the  patient's  equal 
valuation  of  her  desire  for  masculinity  and  her 
craving  to  assert  her  worth.  The  representation 
of  the  feminine  part  as  that  of  the  subordinate 
or  the  one  who  is  beneath  in  the  word,  "under," 
strengthens  this  view  greatly,  but  not  without 
giving  rise  to  the  suspicion  that  the  patient  knows 
the  position  during  coitus.  She  slept  before  the 
arrival  of  the  younger  sister  in  her  parents'  room 
and  even  later  whenever  she  was  ill.  This  sus- 
picion expressed  in  the  presence  of  the  mother 
remained  uncontradicted,  but  had  as  result  that 
both  the  children  were  kept  permanently  out  of 
the  parents'  room.  But  here  we  see  again  how 
the  character-traits  of  this  child  were  active  in  the 
direction  of  the  masculine  protest,  functionating 
as  distantly  placed  outposts  whose  object  it  was 
to  secure  her  at  a  distance  against  every  analogy, 
every  symbolic  experiencing  of  a  female  destiny, 
degradation,  minimizing  of  the  ego-consciousness, 
and  furthermore,  to  protect  her  from  all  future 
misfortune. 

A  similar  affection  well  known  to  physicians 
is  the  school-nausea  and  nausea  at  table  or  shortly 
after  eating  which  resembles  the  above  described 
disease  in  its  psychic  constitution  in  that  it  rep- 


428  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

resents  an  unconscious  expedient  or  one  which 
has  become  unconscious  for  the  purpose  of  avoid- 
ing a  threatened  humihation  and  for  the  purpose 
of  asserting  one's  own  worth. 

A  13  years  old  boy  had  shown  for  the  past  three 
years  a  remarkable  indolence,  which  prevented 
his  progress  at  school,  notwithstanding  his  indis- 
putable intelligence.  For  several  months  past 
he  had  been  manifesting  a  sort  of  lamenting  habi- 
tus which  would  especially  come  to  light  when- 
ever he  was  admonished  for  any  cause  whatever. 
His  father  and  mother  had  probably  always  been 
a  little  too  harsh  with  him,  but  as  far  as  I  could 
obtain  information  their  admonitions  only  re- 
ferred to  his  slowness  in  eating  and  dressing  and 
to  his  eagerness  for  reading.  Lately  things  had 
come  to  such  a  pass  that  the  boy  began  to  cry 
whenever  he  was  reminded  of  anything  or  when 
any  one  hurried  him.  The  result  of  this  condi- 
tion was  a  more  cautious  attitude  on  the  part  of 
the  parents,  though  they  thought  they  could  not 
dispense  with  admonitions  entirely  on  account  of 
the  sluggishness  of  the  boy. 

An  inquiry  concerning  his  last  fit  of  weeping 
showed  that  he  had  been  admonished  to  hurry  to 
school,  after  he  had  been  striving  for  half  an 
hour  before  the  glass  to  brush  his  stubborn  hair 
smooth.  The  analysis  showed  that  he  saw  him- 
self nearing  difficulty  and  wished  to  secure  him- 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.      429 

self  against  painful  humiliations  by  careful  meas- 
ures. He  reproached  himself  severely  with 
childish  sex  indiscretions  which  he  had  committed 
in  company  with  other  boys  and  girls.  Above 
all  he  feared  discovery  by  his  parents  and  this 
fear  reached  an  extraordinary  degree  when  one 
night  during  a  somnambulistic  experience  he  en- 
tered the  servant's  room  and  to  his  great  sur- 
prise found  himself  in  the  morning  in  the  cook's 
empty  bed.  This  sleep-walking  was,  as  in  all 
other  cases  which  I  have  been  able  to  penetrate, 
the  result  of  the  masculine  protest  against  the 
feeling  of  humiliation.  The  day  before  he  was 
transferred  from  the  intermediary  to  the  ele- 
mentary school  because  of  poor  progress.  The 
impression  which  this  scene  made  upon  him  was 
so  great,  the  fear  that  he  might  betray  during  his 
somnambulistic  experiences,  the  secrets  between 
him  and  his  friends,  because  like  all  other  som- 
nambulists he  talked  in  his  sleep,  was  so  terrify- 
ing that  it  led  him  to  very  strong  measures  of 
security.  The  thoughts  were  first  in  regard  to 
his  erections  which  he  sought  to  conceal  carefully 
from  his  parents.  This  he  accomplished  by  a 
downward  stroking  of  his  erected  penis  with  his 
hand.  By  this  time  the  craving  for  security  had 
taken  possession  of  him  to  such  an  extent  that 
he  treated  the  hair  which  stubbornl}^  persisted  in 
standing  up  as  if  it  were  a  sexual  organ,  as  in 


4S0  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

fact  the  craving  for  security  always  reaches  be- 
yond what  is  absolutely  necessary.  In  this  case 
we  see  the  modest  beginning  of  a  compulsory  act 
whose  mechanism  regularly  consists  in  a  repre- 
sentation of  the  masculine  protest  or  in  the  crav- 
ing for  security  directed  towards  it.  The  latter 
becomes  the  content  and  motive  force  of  the  com- 
pulsion neuroses  when  the  masculine  protest  goes 
too  far  and  is  threatened  to  fall  into  femininity 
through  inner  contradictions,  because  the  conse- 
quences would  be  a  punishment,  a  degradation 
or  embarrassment.  It  is  then,  that  the  safety  de- 
vice  itself  seems  to  be  the  more  masculine,  al- 
though the  alluring  feeling  of  triumph  may  not 
be  produced.  Under  certain  circumstances  how- 
ever the  same  results  may  be  attained  by  a  fight- 
ing against  desire  in  every  form,  so  that  a  power- 
ful asceticism  is  valued  as  a  triumph. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  ascetic  leanings  as  varie- 
ties of  self  torture,  found  a  place  in  this  boy's 
craving  for  security,  and  this  disinclination  to 
eat  had  for  its  object  analogously  to  abstinence 
the  checking  of  his  outcropping  sexual  instincts. 
The  boy  who,  apart  from  this,  was  weak  became 
so  reduced  that  the  parents  were  obliged  to  inter- 
fere. Thus  they  came  upon  his  craving  for  se- 
curity which  he  had  gratified  with  so  much  diffi- 
culty. Then  the  psychomotor  familiarity  with 
the  attacks  of  the  parents  led  to  security  through 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.   431 

crime  as  a  result  of  which  his  value  again  became 
enhanced. 

His  eagerness  to  read  also  originated  from  his 
craving  for  security.  The  insecurity  which  had 
seized  him  at  puberty  compelled  him  to  seek  com- 
fort, instruction  and  a  reassuring  fear  of  disease 
in  the  encyclopedia.  He  was  incredibly  well 
read  on  the  problems  in  question.  Once  fairly 
on  the  way  to  seek  security  in  books,  he  overdid 
the  thing  because  the  elder  brothers  and  sisters 
whom  he  emulated  were  remarkable  readers,  also 
because  he  acted  against  his  parents,  his  oppres- 
sors in  doing  this ;  and  thirdly  because  he  was  able 
to  satisfy  his  original  masculine  protest  in  this 
way  and  follow  the  heroes  of  his  books  in  danger 
and  conflict,  which  was  shown  bj^  his  choice  of 
reading  matter — he  preferred  Karl  JNIay. 

The  third  case  was  that  of  an  eleven  years  old 
boy  who  suffered  from  a  psychically  determined 
protracted  pertussis  and  who  at  that  time  still 
suffered  from  enuresis.  He  was  an  intractable 
child  who  wished  to  attach  his  father  to  himself 
while  he  tried  to  avoid  his  step-mother  as  a  cruel 
persecutor.  The  receptive  disposition  of  the 
father  was  manifested  in  his  extreme  solicitude 
during  attacks  of  whooping  cough.  One  morn- 
ing as  the  mother  again  reproached  the  boy  be- 
cause he  had  wet  his  bed,  he  jumped  laughingly 
out  of  bed  and  ran  about  the  room  undressed 


432  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

until  the  solicitous  father  with  an  indignant  re- 
mark to  the  mother  carried  the  breathless  boy 
back  to  bed.  A  severe  fit  of  coughing  which  re- 
sembled whooping  cough,  from  which  he  had  just 
recovered,  closed  this  scene  and  caused  a  quarrel 
between  the  married  couple.  When  the  boy 
again  went  to  bed  in  the  evening,  he  sprang  up  in 
an  excited  manner  and  galloped  back  and  forth 
so  that  he  again  became  breathless.  The  mean- 
ing of  the  attack  was  quite  obvious.  The  boy 
wished  to  again  provoke  reproaches  against  the 
step-mother  and  to  draw  the  father  to  his  side. 
A  suggestive  treatment  and  an  explanation  of  the 
purpose  of  the  attack  brought  about  a  cessation 
of  same,  but  the  pertussis  still  dragged  on  for 
half  a  year  longer. 

Analogous  mechanisms  are  at  the  foundation 
of  the  idea  of  suicide.  The  deed  itself  is  usually 
wrecked  on  the  knowledge  of  the  inner  contradic- 
tions of  this  form  of  the  mascuhne  protest.  The 
psychic  change  results  from  the  thought  of  death, 
of  non-existence,  the  humiliating  feeling  of  being 
about  to  become  dust,  of  wholly  losing  one's  per- 
sonality. Where  there  are  checks  of  a  religious 
nature,  they  are  merely  the  husks,  a  recoil  as 
though  this  action  too  were  a  punishment. 
Hamlet,  up  to  our  time  the  model  of  a  person 
who  doubts  of  his  manliness,  of  the  psychic  her- 
maphrodite, who  consciously  represents  to  him- 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.      433 

self  in  reassuring  forethought  the  limitations  of 
his  manly  protest,  who  rebels  against  his  femi- 
nine line,  and  not  without  evading  the  dialectical 
change  to  the  manly  line,  protects  himself  from 
suicide  by  conjuring  up  the  dreams,  "To  sleep, 
perchance  to  dream,  ay  there's  the  rub,  for  in  that 
sleep  of  death  what  dreams  may  come,  when  we 
have  shuffled  off  this  mortal  coil."  In  the  grave- 
yard scene  a  real  horror  was  manifested  because 
Yorick's  skull  was  of  no  more  value  than  the 
others'. 

I  have  for  some  time  defended  the  view  that 
suicide  is  one  of  the  strongest  forms  of  masculine 
protest  and  represents  a  security  from  humilia- 
tion by  withdrawal.  The  cases  accessible  to  me 
of  attempts  at  suicide  have  always  revealed  the 
neurotic  structure  in  their  psyche.  Signs  of 
somatic  inferiority,  feelings  of  uncertainty  and 
inferiority  from  childhood,  a  psychic  structure 
which  is  felt  to  be  effeminate,  and  the  overtense 
masculine  protest  answering  to  this  feeling  of 
effeminacy  were  manifested  in  the  same  manner 
as  in  every  neurotic.  A  nearer  or  more  remote 
example  shows  the  trend.  The  most  powerful 
psychic  hold  originates  from  the  thoughts  of 
death  in  childhood  which  produce  a  constant  pre- 
disposition to  suicide  by  shaping  the  psychic 
physiognomy  under  the  influence  of  the  egotistic 
idea.     In  the  previous  historj'^  of  would-be  sui- 


434  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

cides  the  same  tendencies  are  fond  of  trying  to 
attain  influence  by  illness,  by  attempting  or  by 
dwelling  on  the  thoughts  of  death,  dreaming  of 
the  mourning  of  relatives  to  obtain  satisfaction 
in  a  situation  of  humiliation  or  when  there  are 
feelings  of  despised  love.  And  the  idea  becomes 
deed  in  a  similar  situation  of  the  reduction  of  the 
feehng  of  self-esteem,  as  soon  as  this  loss  leads  to 
a  strong  reduction  of  the  worth  of  life  and  is  able 
to  cause  the  dialectical  change  of  the  masculine 
idea  of  suicide  to  be  overlooked  in  the  case  of  a 
recent  humiliation.  Thus  we  must  concede  that 
those  wi-iters  are  correct  who  see  in  suicide  a  pro- 
cess allied  to  the  insane  constructions.  My 
studies  and  those  of  Bartel's  on  the  inferiority 
of  organ,  especially  the  inferiority  of  the  sexual 
apparatus,  are  in  harmony  with  this. 

In  the  neuroses  the  probability  of  a  correction 
is  stronger,  if  it  does  not  always  prevent  suicide. 
It  seems,  that  the  profound  consideration  of  the 
problem  of  suicide  which  with  the  neurotic  usu- 
ally lasts  for  years  is  in  itself  a  sign  and  at  the 
same  time  a  contributory  cause  of  the  correction. 
And  in  fact  the  deeds  and  thoughts  of  neurotics 
are  full  of  thoughts  of  death.  Here  is  the  dream 
of  a  neurotic  who  was  under  treatment  on  ac- 
count of  stuttering  and  psychic  impotence,  dur- 
ing a  night  after  he  had  waited  in  vain  for  a  let- 
ter from  his  bride: 


SELF-REPROACHES,  SELF-TORTURE,  ETC.      435 

''/  thought  I  was  dead.  My  relatives  stood 
about  the  coffin  and  conducted  themselves  as 
though  they  were  in  despair/' 

The  patient  remembered  having  often  had 
thoughts  in  childhood  that  he  would  like  to  die 
because  his  parents  preferred  his  j^ounger 
brother.  He  had  always  been  persecuted  by  the 
thought  that  because  of  hydrocele  and  because  of 
smallness  of  the  genital  organs  he  was  inferior 
and  would  have  no  children.  Later  he  thought 
to  protect  himself  by  humiliation  of  women  and 
great  distrust  of  them  to  protect  himself  against 
them  and  unhappiness  in  marriage.  In  reality 
he  felt  too  weak  and  was  afraid  of  women.  Just 
as  he  feared  this  test  in  marriage  he  avoided  all 
decisions  through  a  factor  which  had  become 
motor.  His  impotence  set  in  when  he  received 
a  favorable  answer  from  his  bride,  as  an  excuse, 
an  expedient  to  postpone  marriage.  In  the 
dream,  the  thought  that  his  bride  might  prefer 
another  is  reflected.  With  this  was  connected 
an  attempt  at  a  solution  by  means  of  which  he 
could  divert  her  whole  love  to  himself,  in  which, 
as  in  the  arrangement  of  his  impotence  the  possi- 
bility of  marriage  was  eliminated. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  neurotic's  ESPRIT  DE  FAMILLE,  REFRACTOR- 
INESS AND  OBEDIENCE,  SILENCE  AND  LOQUA- 
CIOUSNESS, THE  TENDENCY  TO  CONTRARINESS. 

In  this  chapter  I  will  refer  to  another  series  of 
character-traits  displayed  by  neurotics,  such  as 
are  often  found  in  the  foreground  of  psychoan- 
alji;ic  observations  where  they  merely  influence 
the  external  picture  of  the  neurosis.  They 
merely  assist  in  constructing  the  neurotic  indi- 
viduality, but  just  on  this  account  may  lend  to 
the  special  neurosis  a  particular  direction,  or  may 
provoke  a  definite  fate  in  the  conflict  with  the 
environment.  Thus  it  may  happen  that  the  neu- 
rotic's esprit  de  famille  may  be  revealed  in  an 
especially  obtrusive  manner,  that  genealogical  in- 
vestigations may  fill  a  part  of  the  neurotic's 
thinking,  which  conceals  more  deeply  seated 
traits,  often  of  the  nature  of  an  unjustifiable 
pride  of  ancestry,  which  is  then  utilized  as  a 
striving  against  the  social  obligations  which  go 
with  sexual  relations  and  marriage,  similarly  as 
the  hunting  out  of  heredity  of  disease  is  utilized. 
This  readily  succeeds  through  an  arrangement  of 

436 


THE  NEUROTIC'S  ESPRIT  DE  FAMILLE       437 

extreme  affection  for  certain  members  of  the 
family,  or  for  the  entire  family.  This  affection 
originates  from  the  compulsion  of  the  same  guid- 
ing fiction  with  its  internal  contradiction  upon 
which  the  fear  of  decisions  and  of  the  sexual  part- 
ner rests.  This  expedient  then  serves  the  pur- 
pose of  gaining  mastery  over  the  family  circle, 
for  which  purpose  the  family  bond  is  taken  as 
something  holy.  In  neurotics  the  break  with  the 
family  borders  on  the  esprit  de  famille,  as  soon  as 
the  craving  for  security  makes  itself  felt  more 
strongly  and  requires  proof  that  it  is  impossible 
to  depend  even  on  blood  relations.  Misanthropy 
as  an  abstract  guiding  line  and  refuge  in  solitude 
are  then  not  rare  occurrences  and  are  plainly  re- 
vealed in  the  psychosis. 

The  subordination  of  the  character-traits  to 
the  guiding  fiction  may  be  seen  especially  clearly 
in  the  antithetical  traits  of  refractoriness  and 
obedience,^  which  singly  or  intermingled  in  vary- 
ing degrees  contribute  much  to  the  coloring  of  the 
neurotic  psyche.  Insight  into  the  construction 
of  these  character-traits,  which  have  been  ab- 
stracted from  neutral,  actual  impressions  of  the 
pre-neurotic  period  and  have  then  been  neuroti- 
cally grouped  and  worked  over  into  guiding 
lines,  teaches  us  much  concerning  the  origin,  the 
meaning  and  purpose  of  a  given  character. 

1  Adler,  Trotz  und  Gehorsam,  1.  c. 


438  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  idea  of  a  congenital  origin  of  "character," 
is  untenable  because  the  real  substratum  for  the 
formation  of  psychic  character  and  whatever  part 
thereof  may  be  congenital,  is  metamorphosed 
under  the  influence  of  the  guiding  idea  until  this 
idea  is  satisfied.  Both  refractoriness  and  obedi- 
ence are  only  attitudes  which  reveal  to  us  the 
jump  from  the  uncertain  past  into  the  protecting 
future,  as  are  all  other  character-traits. 

Timidity  as  an  attitude  of  the  fear  of  decisions 
is  often  accompanied  in  neurotics  by  the  trait  of 
uncommunicability.  These  devices  work  in  the 
manner  of  an  isolation  which  has  for  its  purpose 
the  withdrawal  from  the  environment  of  the 
points  of  contact.  The  neurotic  who  persists  in 
silence  sometimes  shows  his  superiority  and  de- 
rogatory tendency  also  in  the  role  of  kill- joy,  or 
he  arranges  through  his  silence  and  apparent 
want  of  ideas  the  proof  that  he  is  not  the  equal  of 
others,  especially  when  these  are  in  the  majoritj^, 
and  that  he  is  especially  unfit  for  marriage.  In 
the  taking  up  and  accentuating  the  antithesis  of 
the  above,  loquaciousness,  I  have  at  times  discov- 
ered the  proof  for  the  conviction  that  the  indi- 
vidual cannot  keep  a  secret.  Another  form  of 
attack  and  detraction  is  found  in  the  loud,  im- 
patient manner  which  many  neurotics  have  of  in- 
terrupting others.  The  object  is  often  more  ob- 
vious from  the  circumstance  that  he  introduces 


THE  NEUROTIC'S  ESPRIT  DE  FAMILLE       439 

every  remark  with  a  "No"  or  a  "But"  or  an  "On 
the  contrary." 

A  trait  of  character  to  which  the  neurosis  owes 
much  of  its  definiteness  and  significance,  which 
is  always  present  and  which,  together  with 
refractoriness  and  negativism,  belongs  to  the 
strongest  forms  of  expression  of  the  masculine 
protest,  is  the  tendency  to  desire  to  have  every- 
thing different  or  turned  around.  This  trait  is 
found  in  the  compensatory  efforts  as  well  as  in 
the  striving  after  neurotic  expedients,  it  exists 
in  the  disputatiousness  and  in  the  neurotic  de- 
rogatory tendency  and  possesses  an  enormous 
applicability  for  the  conflict  with  the  environ- 
ment. It  is  the  counterpart  of  the  frequently 
observed  conservative,  pedantic  nature  of  the 
neurotic  and  like  it  permits  him  to  confirm  his 
thirst  for  mastery.  The  striving  for  change  and 
revolution  is  found  at  the  root  of  the  masculine 
protest,  when  the  latter  is  constructed  according 
to  an  antithesis.  "The  essential  of  all  feminine 
dialectic  is  said  to  be:  to  wish  everything  differ- 
ent," announces  E.  Fuchs  in  "Die  Frau  in  der 
Karikatur."  In  dress,  morals,  attitude,  and 
movement,  something  bizarre  is  always  revealed, 
usually  with  some  pretext.  One  of  my  patients 
often  turned  herself  around  in  sleep  in  such  a 
way  that  M^hen  she  awoke  she  found  herself  lying 
in  the  opposite  direction.     In  waking  hours  also 


440  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

she  sought  to  turn  ever>i;hing  upside  down. 
One  of  her  favorite  phrases  was,  "On  the  con- 
trary," as  an  objection  to  the  opinion  of  others. 
The  wish  to  be  above,  to  ride,  to  wear  the  pants 
is  often  found  to  be  expressed  in  patients  of  this 
sort  in  an  extraordinarilv  clear  manner.  In  the 
psychotherapeutic  treatment  this  trait  is  mani- 
fested from  beginning  to  end,  as  is  the  cane  with 
negativism  in  catatonics,  may  be  always  antici- 
pated and  extends  to  the  most  trivial  things. 
Very  often  these  neurotic  tendencies  to  contrari- 
ness are  manifested  in  the  form  of  a  notion  that 
the  physician  could  come  to  the  patient,  not  the 
patient  to  the  physician.  Predictions  should  as 
a  rule  be  avoided  in  the  treatment  of  neurotics, 
but  where  there  is  a  strong  tendency  to  turn 
things  around  the  physician  will  always  be  put 
in  the  wrong. 

The  effort  is  constantly  made  to  make  up- 
down  ;  right-left ;  bef ore-behind,  because  the  guid- 
ing fiction  demands  symbolically  the  turning 
around,  that  is,  the  changing  from  feminine  to 
masculine.  Words  and  writing  are  turned 
around  (mirror  writing),  morality,  sexual  con- 
duct, dreams  are  turned  into  opposites  and  fol- 
low in  reverse  sequence  and  sometimes  playfully, 
but  at  other  times  offensively,  thoughts  are 
turned  around.     The  expedient  which  is  to  pre- 


THE  NEUROTIC'S  ESPRIT  DE  FAMILLE       411 

serve  a  masculine  line  of  conduct  has  accordingly 
something  of  the  nature  of  fury. 

The  apphcation  of  this  "On  the  contrary" 
(Umgekehrt)  in  superstition,  perhaps  for  the 
purpose  of  cheating  fate  by  expecting  the  oppo- 
site of  what  one  would  like  is  a  frequent  trait  in 
neurotics,  reveals  their  complete  insecurity,  takes 
us  back  to  the  neurotic  cautiousness  and  permits 
the  recognition  of  the  tremendous  significance 
and  wide  scope  which  this  attains  in  the  psyche 
of  the  neurotic.^ 

About  this  nucleus  of  cautiousness  may  be 
grouped,  according  to  the  exactions  of  the  guid- 
ing ideal,  traits  of  truthfulness  or  untruthfulness 
as  the  particular  situation  may  demand.  They 
always  express  the  striving  after  full  masculinity, 
sometimes  directly,  at  other  times  by  circuitous 
ways.  Closely  related  to  these  are  traits  of  de- 
ception and  frankness,  the  first  characteristic 
originating  clearly  in  a  feeling  of  inferiority,  of 
being  under.  A  strong  anticipatory  craving  for 
security  is  revealed  by  the  traits  of  hypersensi- 
tiveness  to  pain  and  suffering  which  keeps  the  in- 
dividual as  well  as  the  environment  reminded  that 
he  can  only  choose  those  situations  in  life  which 
can  be  endured  without  pain.  It  goes  without 
saying  that  the  anticipation  of  labor  pains  often 

2  See  also  Adler,  "Syphilidophobia,"  1.  c. 


442  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

enters  into  the  construction  of  this  guiding  hne. 
The  neurotic's  phenomena  of  douht,  of  vacilla- 
tion and  of  lack  of  decision  which  have  been  so 
frequently  emphasized  in  this  book  are  related  to 
cautiousness.  They  always  set  in  when  reality 
influences  the  guiding  fiction  in  such  a  manner 
that  contradictions  constantly  emerge  in  the  lat- 
ter, when  the  danger  of  a  defeat,  of  a  loss  of  pres- 
tige, is  threatened  by  reality.  There  are  then, 
generally  speaking,  three  ways  open  to  the  neu- 
rotic, which  depend  upon  the  strength  of  the  fic- 
titious guiding  goal,  so  that  the  developed  neu- 
rosis assumes  an  aspect  in  correspondence  with 
one  of  these.  The  first  way  is  by  fixing  the 
doubt  and  vacillation  as  a  basis  of  operation,  as 
is  most  frequently  found  in  neurasthenics  and 
psychasthenics,  the  tendency  to  doubt.  The  sec- 
ond way  leads  to  the  psychosis  by  means  of  which 
under  the  construction  of  a  feeling  of  truth,^  the 
fiction  is  hypostasized,  deified.  The  third  way 
leads  to  a  formal  change  of  the  fiction  under  an 
arrangement  of  anxiety,  weakness,  pain,  etc.,  in 
short  to  a  neurotic,  circuitous  way  in  which  femi- 
nine means  are  employed  to  attain  the  purposes 
of  the  masculine  protest. 

3  Kanabich,  "Zur  Pathologic  der  Intellectuellen  Emotionen" 
("Psychotherapia,"  edited  by  v,  N.  Wiroboff,  Moskau,  1911),  ap- 
proached this  thought  very  closely. 


CONCLUSION 

Our  study  has  shown  that  man's  character- 
traits  and  their  principal  function  in  the  hfe  of 
the  individual  are  manifested  as  expedients,  in 
the  nature  of  guiding  lines  for  the  thinking,  feel- 
ing, willing,  and  acting  of  the  human  psyche,  and 
that  they  are  brought  into  stronger  relief  so  soon 
as  the  individual  strives  to  escape  from  the  phase 
of  uncertainty  to  the  fulfillment  of  his  fictitious 
guiding  idea.  The  material  for  the  construction 
of  the  character-traits  is  contained  in  the  psychic 
totality  and  congenital  differences  vanish  before 
the  uniform  effect  of  the  guiding  fiction.  Goal 
and  direction,  the  fictitious  purpose  of  the  traits 
of  character  may  be  best  recognized  in  the  orig- 
inal, direct,  aggressive  lines.  Want  and  diffi- 
culties of  life  lead  to  alterations  of  character,  so 
that  only  such  constructions  find  favor  as  stand 
in  harmony  with  the  individual's  ego-idea.  In 
this  manner  are  formed  the  more  cautious,  the 
more  hesitating  character-traits  which  show  a 
deviation  from  the  direct  line,  but  examination 
of  which  reveals  their  dependence  upon  the  guid- 
ing fiction. 

443 


444  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

The  neuroses  and  psychoses  are  attempts  at 
compensation,  constructive  creations  of  the 
psyche  which  result  from  the  accentuated  and  too 
highly  placed  guiding  ideal  of  the  inferior  child. 
The  uncertainty  of  these  children  in  regard  to 
their  future  and  their  success  in  life  forces  them 
to  stronger  efforts  and  reassurances  in  their  fic- 
titious hfe  plan.  The  more  fixed  and  rigid  their 
guiding  picture,  their  individual  categorical  im- 
perative, the  more  dogmatically  they  draw  the 
guiding  lines  of  their  lives.  The  more  cautiously 
they  proceed  in  this,  the  further  they  weave  these 
threads  of  thought  beyond  their  own  person  out 
into  the  future  and  organize  on  their  peripheral 
ends  where  contact  with  the  external  world  is  to 
take  place,  those  traits  of  character  which  are 
required  to  serve  as  outposts  for  their  psychic 
predispositions.  With  its  extraordinary  sensi- 
tiveness the  neurotic  trait  of  character  fastens 
itself  to  reality  in  order  to  change  it  according 
to  the  egoistic  ideal,  or  in  order  to  subject  it  to 
the  same.  Should  defeat  threaten,  the  neurotic 
predispositions  and  symptoms  come  into  force. 

The  slight  significance  of  the  congenital  sub- 
stratum as  far  as  the  formation  of  character  is 
concerned  arises  also  from  the  fact  that  the  guid- 
ing fiction  only  collects  and  unites  into  a  group 
those  psychic  elements  of  which  it  can  make  use. 
It  only  collects  those  faculties  and  memories  in 


CONCLUSION  445 

which  results  are  promised  for  the  attainment  of 
the  final  goal.  In  the  neurotic  reformation  of 
the  psyche  the  guiding  fiction  has  absolute  do- 
minion and  makes  use  of  experience  according 
to  its  own  bent,  as  if  the  psyche  were  a  motion-, 
less,  concrete  mass.  It  is  only  when  the  neurotic 
perspective  becomes  effective,  when  the  neurotic 
character  and  predispositions  are  fully  developed 
and  the  way  to  the  guiding  goal  is  assured  that 
we  recognize  the  individual  as  neurotic.  It  is 
then  that  the  neurotic  psyche  teaches  us  more 
clearly  than  does  the  normal  that,  "Through  the 
great  being  which  surrounds  and  penetrates  us, 
there  is  a  great  becoming  which  strives  toward  a 
completed  being  "  (Durch  das  grosse  Sein,  das 
uns  umgibt  und  weit  in  uns  hineinreicht,  zieht 
sich  ein  grosses  Werden,  das  dem  vollendeten 
Sein  zustrebt.)  Thus  we  find  that  "character," 
which  has  found  its  utility  through  the  guiding 
ideal  is  something  like  an  intelligent  pattern 
( intelligente  Schablone)  which  is  made  use  of 
by  the  craving  for  security  as  well  as  by  the  affect 
and  disease  predispositions.  It  is  the  task  of 
comparative  individualistic  psychology  to  com- 
prehend the  meaning  of  these  models,  as  Breuer 
has  begun  to  understand  them  in  their  genetic, 
and  in  our  sense,  analogical  construction,  to  re- 
gard them  as  a  symbol  of  a  life  plan,  as  a  simile. 
For  through  the  analysis  of  character  by  means 


446  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

of  which  the  line  which  ever  soars  toward  the 
guiding  ideal  may  always  be  followed,  we  find 
compressed  in  one  point  the  past,  present,  future, 
and  the  desired  goal. 

One  will  always  find  that  neurotics  cling  te- 
naciously to  their  reassuring  ideals.  The  de- 
fense of  them  becomes  accentuated  because  the 
patient  in  abandoning  his  ideal  as  well  as  by  a 
change  in  direction  of  his  life  plan  brought  about 
by  another  anxiously  anticipates  a  defeat,  a  sub- 
ordination, an  emasculation.  The  next  step  in 
the  therapeutic  procedure  will,  according  to  this, 
have  to  be  the  removal  of  this  strongly  antithet- 
ical attitude,  the  resistance  of  the  patient  to  the 
physician,  and  its  revelation  as  a  form  of  the  old 
neurotic  ideal,  as  the  exaggerated  masculine  pro- 
test. 

Thus  as  a  final  word  and  as  an  explanation  of 
our  standpoint  we  may  sum  up  as  follows:  In- 
ferior organs  and  neurotic  phenomena  are  sym- 
bols of  formative  forces  which  strive  to  realize  a 
self-constructed  life  plan  by  means  of  intense 
efforts  and  expedients. 


AUTHORS'  CONTRIBUTIONS  REFERRED 
TO  IN  THIS  BOOK 

Studie  iiber  Minderwertigkeit  von  Organen.  Urban 
u.  Schwarzenberg.     Wien  u.  Berlin,  1907. 

Uber  neurotische  Disposition.  Jahrbuch,  Bleuler- 
Freud,  1909. 

Der  Aggressionstrieb  im  Leben  und  in  der  Neurose. 
Fortschritte  der  Medizin.     Leipzig,  1908. 

Die  Bedeutung  der  Organminderwertigkeitslehre  fiir 
Philosophie  und  Psychologie.  Vortrag  in  der  Gesell- 
schaft  fiir  Philosophie  an  der  Universitat  in  Wien, 
1908. 

Myelodysplasie  oder         Organminderwertigkeit .'' 

Wiener  med.  Wochenschrift,  1909. 

Der  psychische  Hermaphroditismus  im  Leben  und  in 
der  Neurose.     Fortschr.  d.  Medizin,  1910.     Leipzig. 

Trotz  und  Gehorsam.  Monatschefte  fiir  Padagogik. 
Wien,  1910. 

Die  psyche  Behandlung  der  Trigeminusneuralgie. 
Zentralblatt  fiir  Psychoanalyse.  Wiesbaden.  Berg- 
man, 1910. 

Einerlogener  Traum.  Zentralblatt  fiir  Psychoan- 
alyse.    Wiesbaden.     Bergman,  1910. 

Uber  mannliche  Einstellung  bei  weiblichen  Neu- 
rotikern.  Zentralblatt  fiir  Psychoanalyse.  Wies- 
baden.    Bergman,  1910. 

447 


448  THE  NEUROTIC  CONSTITUTION 

Beitrag  zur  Lehre  vom  Widerstand.  Zentralblatt 
fiir  Psychoanalyse.     Wiesbaden.     Bergman,  1910. 

Syphilidophobie.  Zentralblatt  fiir  Psychoanalyse. 
Wiesbaden.     Bergman,  1910. 

Zur  Determination  des  Charakters.  Vortrag,  gehal- 
ten  in  der  Gesellschaft  fiir  Psychologie  an  der  Uni- 
versitat  in  Wien,  1909. 


THE  END  J 


INDEX 


Accusation,  self-,  273 
Acquisitiveness,   12 
Activity,  40,  279 
Adenoids,  8 

Adlcr,  bibliography,  447 
Adultery,  216,  274 
Affectivity,   10 
Aggressionstrieb,  2,  15,  80,  325, 

329 
Agoraphobia,  191 
Alcoholism,  381 
Alexander,  339 
Algolagnia,  250 
Ambition,  38,  97,  325,  347,  384 

case,  341 
Ambivalency,   245 
Angio-neurotic  diathesis,  Krei- 

bich,  4 
Anorexia,  212 
Anticipatory  thinking,  389 
Antithesis,  the  neurotic,  25,  31, 

33,  65,  86,  99,  106,  116,  150, 

209,  218,  293,  334,  340,  345, 

389,  440 
Antivivisectionism,  328 
Anton,  4 
Anxiety,  96,  151,  161,  163,  184, 

242,  272,  347,  374,  381 
cases,  165,  195,  226,  284,  301 
Apperception,     neurotic     mode 

of,  32,  42,  127,  227 
Aprosexia,  8 
Aristotle,  25,   339 
Arrogance,  283 
Asceticism,  208,  412,  417,  430 
As  If,  Philosophy  of  the,  30 
Asthma,  122,  369*^ 
Authoritativeness,  334 
Author's  bibliographv,  447 
Avarice,   127,  152,   163,   186 
cases,  131 


Avenarius,   74 
Awkwardness,    212,   386 

Baldung,  339 

Bartel,   5,  9,   10,  434 

Baschkirzewa,  261 

Basedow,  159 

Bashfulness,  96,  107,  184,  305 

Baudelaire,  387 

Berger,  Alfred  v.,  348 

Bergson,  56,  352 

Bezzola,  225 

Bibliography,  Adler,  447 

Bickel,  12 

Birks,  Thiemich-,  9 

Biting  of  nails,  50 

Bjerre,  422 

Blepharospasm,  181 

Bleuler,   25,   72,   171,   180,   245, 

253 
Blindness,  212 
Bloch,  250 
Blushing,  49,  191,  213,  305,  365, 

374 
Boastfulness,  209,  279 
Bossi,   166 
Bouchard,  4 
Brady  trophy,  4 
Breuer,  vii,   148 
Brod,    156 
Burgkmair,   339 

Capriciousness,  244 

Carelessness,  260 

Cams,   117 

Cases,  130,  165,  177,  193,  220, 
221,  226,  254,  264.  274.  284, 
290,  298,  299,  303,  338,  344, 
370,  395,  418,  420,  423,  428, 
431 


449 


450 


INDEX 


Castration  phantasies,  376,  393 
Catarrh,  369 
Catatonia,  case,  274 
Caution,  41,   161,  314,  384,  441 
Charcot,  56 
Chatrain,  118 
Chvostek,  9 
Claustrophobia,  191 
Cleanliness,  97 
Climacteric,  28,   154 
Clumsiness,  8,  52 
Colic,  122 
Comby,  4 
Compensation, 
Anton's  theory,  4 
psychic,  35 

through   the  central   nervous 
system,  1,  18 
Compulsory  ideas,  222,  383 

cases,  344,  348 
Conscience,  246,  324,  330,  347 
Conscientiousness,  96,  272 
Constancy,  361 
Constipation,    122,    177 

case,  165 
Constitutional  inferiority,  8,  34, 

57 
Contentiousness,    40,    44,    295, 

348 
Contrariness,  436 
Contrition,  412 
Convulsions,  tetanoid,  9 
Coprology,  377 
Coprophilic  phantasies,  394 
Coquetry,  128,  217,  246,  250 
Courage,  61,  97,  283 
Covetousness,   279 
Cowardice,  107,  283,  291,  342 
Craving  for  security,  xv,  40,  41, 
56,    94,    99,    134,    163,    241, 
276,  351,  359,  368,  393,  417, 
431 
Criminality,  107,  208,  214,  329 
Critique,  127,  297 
Cruelty,   61,   107,   127,  324,  329 
Cryptorchism,  142,  197 
Cyclothymia,  389 
Czerny,   4,    10,    11,   369 


Darwin,   70 
Deaf-mutism,  8 
Deafness,  212 
Death,  danger  of,  28 
Deception,  283 
Defiance,  case,  341 
Degeneracy,  9 
Deja  vu,  88 
Delirium,  208 

Dementia  precox,  267,  342,  358. 
389  ' 

Demosthenes,  316 
Depreciation,     of     others,     44: 

self-,  59 
Depression,   191,  213,  347,  370. 
381  ' 

cases,   195,  348,  395 
Derogation,   127,   147,  281,  285. 
297,  334,  343,  363,  384,  396, 
421  ' 

of  man,  184 
Desire  to  dominate,  186 
Dessoir,   103 
Dexterities,  151,  184 
Diagram,  of  neurotic  psyche,  73 
Difficulty  of  hearing,  8,  10 
Discontent,  281,  369,  384 
Disparagement,  see  Derogation 
Disposition  zur  Neurose,  264 
Disputatiousness,  185,  349,  369, 
439 

Distractibility,  10 
Distrust,  216 

Dogs,  symbolic  significance,  358 
Dostoyeffsky,  348 
Doubt,   97,    151,   162,  208,   261, 
297 
cases,  220,  349 
Dream  theory,  x 
Dreams,  39,   85,    108,   149,   163, 
187,  199,  204,  226,  253,  256, 
285,  286,  288,  294,  298,  300, 
303,  320,  339,  350,  354,  355, 
356,  357,  358,  371,  399,  405, 
425,  434 
of  a  single  night,  356 
day,  369 

exhibition,  163,  237 
flying,  33,  339 


INDEX 


451 


Dreams,  of  climbing  stairs,  339 

of  riding,  339 

sexual,    163 
Durer,  339 
Dyspnoea,   185 

Eavesdropping,   197 
Economy,    97 

Effeminacy,  31,  40,  43,  61 
Ego-consciousness,    21,    27,    37, 

55,  62,  63,  76,  138,  289,  338, 

342,  354,  362,  374,  387,  425 
Egotism,  97,   107,  262 
Ejacuiatio  precox,  143,  367 
Emasculation,   281,   341 
Eneuresis,  10,  50,  212 
cases,  177,  284,  431 
Envy,  44,  61,  97,  127,  163,  186, 

232,  279,  325,  347 
Epicureanism,  417 
Epilepsy,  191,  192,  327 
case  176 

hystero-,   case,   344 
Epochs,   causative   of  neuroses 

and  psychoses,  28 
Eppinger,  4 
Erckmann,  118 
Erythrophobia,   122 
Escherich,  4,  9 
Esprit  de  famille,  436 
Exactness,  97,  213 
Exaltation,   213 
Examinations,  28 
Exhibitionism,    237,     361,    377, 

378,  395 
Exner,  93 
Exudative  diathesis,  4,  290,  369 

Fainting,  213 
Fantasy,  85,  253 
Fatigue,  41,  185 
Fear,  184,  343 

of  being  alone,  184 

of  decision,  383,  438 

of  falling,   184 

of  partner,  383,  385,  391,  392 

of  places,  380,  406 

of  reality,  89 

of  society,  184,  380 


Fear,  of  solitude,  380 
of  wife,  383 

Feeble-mindedness,  10 

Feeling  of  inferiority,  1,  12,  17, 
27,  58,  60,  63,  85,  92,  100, 
164,  208,  211,  222,  253,  295, 
306,  330,  336,  338,  353, 
367,  374,  407 
case,  344 

Feeling  of  superiority,  21,  36, 
229,  320,  363,  417 

Fellatio,   242 

F^r^,  ix 

Ferrari,  329 

Fetichism,  209,  239,  260,  333, 
348,  378 

Finickiness,  186,  278 

Flagellation,   393,  412,  419 

Flies,  105,  220,  212 

Forgetfulness,  297 

Fortmuller,  271 

Fres-Meyerhof,  70 

Freud,  viii,  ix,  x,  xi,  6,  53,  69, 
76,  106,  108,  111,  147,  148, 
159,  171,  180,  203,  225,  226, 
261,  288,  296,  332 

Freytag,  83,  316 

Frigidity,  184,  218,  253 

Frischauf,   191,   313 

Fuchs,  E.,  439 

Fugues,  10,  216 

Gall,  117 

Gandharvs,  105 

Ganghofer,  404 

Genitals,   malformation   of,  9 

Genu  valgus,  9 

Genu  varus,  9 

Globus   hystericus,    181 

Goethe,  38,  103,  118,  154 

Gogol,  410 

Gott,  9,   10 

Gourmondism,    13 

Greed,  12,  61,  97,  297,  325 

Grien,  339 

Grillparzer,  392 

Groos,  46,  55,  337,  3T6 

Gross,  Otto,  4,  214 

Griiner,  277,  311 


452 


INDEX 


Guiding  fiction,  22,  36,  54 
Guiding  line,  42 
Guiding  principle,  19,  29 

Habitus,  torpid,  10 

Halban,  105 

Hallucinations,  39,  85,  91,  253, 

259,  265 
of  pain,  341 
Halvan,  220 
Hamburger,  11 
Hate,  44 
Headache,    122,    190,    191,    213, 

370,  381 
cases,  338 
Hebel,  89 

Hennaphrodism,  236 
psychic,    102,    105,    208,   246, 

275,  345 
Herodotus,  65 
Hero-worship,  366 
Hertz,  409 
Hesitation,  97 
Hess,  4 
Heubner,  4 
Heyman,  214 
Hilfs        constructionen,        see 

Safety-devices 
Hirschfeld,  238 
Hochwert,  Frankl  v.,  9,  10 
Holtzknecht,  122 
Homer,  267 
Homosexuality,  32,  43,  240,  260, 

333,  361,  406 
Hydrosephalus,  9 
Hyperacusis,  202 
Hypersensitiveness,    344 
Hypochondriasis,  151,  242 
Hypophysis   cerebri,   279 
Hysteria,  327 
Hystero-epilepsy,  344 

Ibsen,  128,  212 
Ideal,  ego,  384 
neurotic,   383 
Immermann,  211 
Immodesty,  237,  379,   see    also 

Exhibitionism 
Impatience,  40,  186,  281 


Impotence,  23,  41,  43,  61,  147, 
359,  367 

cases,  434 
Inaccessibility,  281 
Incest-complex,  208,  231,  305 

phantasies,   333,    386 
Inconstancy,  361 
Incontinence,  of  faeces,  9 

of  urine,  9 
Indolence,   10,  40 
Industry,  97 

Infantile  arthritism,  Comby,  4 
Infantilism,    10 
Inferiority,  literature  of,  3 
Infidelity,  406 

phantasies  of,  379 
Insatiableness,   232 
Insomnia,    186,    190,    216,    308, 
319,  383 

cases,  220,  258,  348,  352,  395 
Intolerance,  44 
Introduction,  v 
Introspection,  97 
Irritability,  10 

James,  56 

Janet,  vi,  vii,  ix,  244,  413 

Jassny,  214,  329 

Jaureg,  Wagner  von,  324 

Jealousy,    216,    334,    357,    361, 

364,  370,  381,  384 
Jodl,  91 

Joel,   Karl,  340,  345 
Johannistrieb,    160 
Jones,  E.,  238,  313 

Kanabich,  442 
Kant,  54,  56,  69,  315,  346 
Kipling,  311 
Kisch,  162 

Kleptomania,   191,  211 
Krafft-Ebing,  105 
Kreibich,  4 
Kyrle,  5,  424 

Laziness,  41,   107,  341 

cases,  428 
I>eonardo  da  Vinci,  179 
Leporelist,   210 


INDEX 


453 


Lewdness,  381 

Libido,   62 

Lichtenberg,  109,  417 

Limping,  21i3 

Lingua  scrotallis,   120 

Lipps,  315 

Litzmann,  212 

Liveliness,   10 

Lombroso,  18,  25,  152,  329 

Love,  208,  215 

Lying,   pathological,   10 

mania,   209 

cases,  223  * 

Lyraphatism,  Heubner's,  4 

Malice,  192,  325 

Malthieu,   Dr.,   118 

Mannliche     Einstellung    Weib- 

licher   Neurotikes,  319 
Marczinowsky,    379 
Marriage,  28,  41 
Martius,  5 
Masculine  goal,  15 

"  protest,  100,  103,  108, 

164,  178,  184,  213,  220,  226, 

246,  296,  334,  353,  369,  374, 

385,  394 
Masochism,  40,  260,  333,  359,  386 

cases,  326,  340 
Masturbation,  23,  50,   208,  222, 

273,   334,    359,   381,   414 
cases,  221,  233,  276,  292,  354, 

369,  373 
Megalomania,  97 
Meister,  103 
Melancholy,   161,  389 
Mendel,  159 
Menstruation,  28 
Meschede,   261 
Mever,  E.  H.,  105 
Meyerhoff,  32,  70 
Michaelis,  160 
Michel,  95 
Migraine,  122,  161,  191,  213,  308, 

317,  327 
cases,  195,  420 
Minus-variants,  4 
Misoneism,  Lombroso's,  18,  152 
Mistrust,  184,  357 


Modesty,  96,  237,  260,  283,  361, 

374,  375 
Moebius,  248 
Moll,  240 
Moodiness,   10 
Morel,  9 
Moro,  4 
Moroseness,  10 
Morphine,  failure  of,  421 
Mother  fixation,  114 
Myopathy,  11 
Myths,  charm  of,  387 

Naecke,  251 

Naevi,  8 

Narcissism,  246,  252,  377,  385, 

395 
Nausea,  185,  212 

cases,   165 

school,  427 
Necrophilia,  250 
Negativism,  infantile,  177 
Neologisms,  cases,  267 
Netslitzky,  10 
Neuralgia,  327 

cases,  308 
Neurotischen  Disposition,  2,  317 
Neusser,  von,  220 
Nietzsche,  ix,  17,  24,  30,  61,  79, 

114,  169,  170,  397 
No,  the  neurotic,  349 
Nymphomania,  210 

Obedience,  436 

Obstinancy,  40,  60,  184,  232,  281, 

301 
cases,  284,  341 
Obstipation,  see  Constipation 
Oedipus   complex,  64,   150,  189, 

191,  203 
Onanism,   see    Masturbation 
Oppenheim,   336 
Organ-inferiority,  7 
Organ-jargon,       see       Somatic 

j  argon 
Overcompensation,    psychic,    1, 

12 
Ovid,  239 


454 


INDEX 


Palpitation   of  heart,   185,  191, 

374. 
Paralysis,  308,  381 
Paranoia,   2IS7,    389 

litigious,  i358 
Parsimony,  208 
Passivity,'  40,  43 
Patricide,  348 
Paulsen,  52 
Pavor   nocturnus,   10 
Pawlow,  67 
Pedantry,  60,  163,  246 
Penury,  208 

Perscinliclikeitsgeflihl,  see  Ego- 
consciousness 
Pertussis,  cases,  431 
Perverse  sexuality,  23 
Perversion,   324,   332,   361,  369, 

381,  393 
Pessimism,  151 
Pfaundler,  10 
Phantasy,  see  Fantasy 
Phantom  pregnancy,  183 
Philosopiiy     of     the     As      If, 

Vaihinger,  30 
Phlegmatism,  10 
Phobias,  see  Fear 
Photophobia,  8 
Pineles,  9 
Plato,  346,  384 
Pliancy,  283 
Pogglo,  409 

Pollution,   354,  367,  369,  406 
Poltauf,  4 
Polyuria,  185 
Ponflick,  4 
Porta,  117 
Potpeschnigg,  9 
Practical  Part,  127 
Precocity,  8,   10,  232 

sexual,  23 
Preface,  Author's,  iii 
Pregnancy,   28 

phantom,  183 

compulsory  ideas,  185 
Preparation,     psychic,    39,    48, 

92,  114 
Preuss,  K.  Th.,  335 
Pride,  61,  97,  370,  381 


Profession,  choice  of,  334 

Prostitution,  308 
phantasies,  379 

Protection, 

against  coitus,  184,  185 
against   courting,   184 
against   maternal  duties,   186 
against  parturition,  185 
against  pregnancy,  185 
against  puerperium,  186 

Pseudomasochism,  260,  368 

Psychic  hcrmaphrodism  in  life 
and   the   neuroses,   102,   180 

Psychischen  Behandlung  des 
Trigeminusneuralgie,  2,  212, 
313,  368 

Psychischen  Hermaphroditis- 
mus,  2 

Puerperium,  28 

Punctuality,  361 

Pyromania,  326 

Pythagoras,  25 

Querulousness,  295 

Rage,  paroxysms  of,  10 
Raimann,  244 
Rakowiza,  Helen,  261 
Recurrence     of    the     identical, 

Nietzsche,  17 
Reflexes,  exaggerated,  10 

conditioned,    12 
Refraction,  anomalies  of,  8 
Refractoriness,  436 
Reich,  J.,  316 
Religiosity,  41,  422 
Remorse,  347,  348 
Restlessness,  10 

Return  of  the  identical,  Nietz- 
sche, 397 
Revengefulness,  61,  192 
Rickets,  9,  279,  338 
Rochefoucald,   140,  326 
Roughness,  143,  270 
Round  shoulders,  9 

Sadism,   23,   44,    143,   186,    192, 

240,  325,  332,  333,  359 
Safety-devices,  xii,  87,  117 


INDEX 


455 


Sand,  George,  287 
Sclieme,  neurotic,  184 
Schmidt,  9,   120 
Schopenhauer,  105,  248,  388 
Schrebcr,  case  of,  261 
Schrenck-Notzing,   250 
Schumann,  Clara,  212,  316 
Scoliosis,  9 

Self-accusation,  272,  412 
Self-confidence,  88 
Self-preservation,  70 
Self-reproach,   348 
Self-torture,  412 
Senile  neuroses,  127,  154 
Sensitiveness,  369 

cases,   341 
Sentiment     d'incompletude,    of 

Janet,  vi 
Sexual  guiding  lines,  90 
Sexual  perversions,  142,  240,  254 

inferiority,   166 
Sexual  precocity,  23 

activity,  28 

anomalies,  27,  63 
Sexuality  and  death,  401 

as  a  jargon,  64,  158,  204,  237, 
293,  337,  353,  369 
Shame,  96 

Shamelessness,  376,  see  also  Ex- 
hibitionism 
Shlller,   69 
Sicherungstendenz,  see  Craving 

for  security 
Silberer,   72 
Silence,  381,  436 
Simmel,  248 
Simplicity,  260 
Simulation,   208,   281 
Singer,  122 
Siphilidophobia,   234,   315,   321, 

407,  441 
Sleep,  disturbances  of,  10 
Sleepiness,  10,  191 
Socrates,  96 

Somatic  inferiority,  1,  2,  412 
Somatic   jargon,   127,   176,   179, 

259 
Somnambulism,   10,  334 
Spasmophilia,  Escherich,  4 


Spasms,  sphincters,  181 

vocal   cords,   181 
Speech-defect,  8,   10 
Sperm     glands,    anomalies    of, 

279 
Splitting  of  consciousness,  128, 

260 
Squints,  10 
Staggering   gait,   186 
Stammering,  cases,  130 
Stature,  anomalies  of,  9 
Status         thymico-lymphatlcus, 

220 
in    suicide,    10;    Poltauf,    4, 

Baitel,  5 
Stekel,  201,  329 
Stendhal,  404 
Stern,  R.,  424 
Stinginess,   12 
Strabismus,  8 
Stransky,  11 
Strindberg,  248 
Strumpell,  4,  244,  290,  369 
Studie  iiber  Mindwertigkeit  von 

Organen,    iii,    1,    5,    7,    11, 

15,   72,   116,   166,   265,  288, 

300 
Stupidity,  10 
Stuttering,  8,  50,   191,  212,  305 

cases,  298,  434 
Submissiveness,  283,  386 
Sucking,  50 

thumb,  121 
Suggestibilitv,  43,  244 
Suicides,  29,'  308,  312,  412,  432, 
status-ljTnphaticus   in,    10 
juvenile,   10 
cases,  220,  284,  395 
Suspiciousness,    127 
Symbols,  as  a  jargon,  x,  30,  122, 

340 
Sympathy,  246,  314 

Tardiness,  297 
Telepathy,  85 
Tetanoid  convulsions,  9 
Theoretical  part,  1 
Thiemich-Birks,   9 
Thirst,  excessive,  191 


4o6 


INDEX 


^ 


Thriftiness,  186 

Thynuis-anonialies,  279 

Tliyroid   anomalies,  279 

Ties,   10 

Timidity,    10 

Tolstoi,  409 

Tooth-motive,   115 

Tremor,  213,  354 

Trotz  und  Gehorsam,  16,  52,  437 

Truancy,  10 

Tyranny,  97,  349,  357,  406 

Ueber   neurotische    Disposition, 

271 
Uncertainty,  102,  196,  386,  403 
Unchastityj  248 
Unfaithfulness,   248 
Ungainliness,  8 
Unruliness,   301 
Unsociability,  10 

Vaginismus,   181,  184 
Vagotonia,  Hess-Eppinger,  4 
Vaihinger,    30,    36,   37,    77,   99, 

169,   170,  315,  405 
Valgus,   genu,  9 
Varus,  genu,  9 
Vegetarianism,  328 
Vertigo,  122 

cases,  165,  405 
Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  179 
Virchow,  iv,  9 


Vomiting,  121,  122,  185 
Von   Neusser,  220 
Voyeur,  360 

Wagner,  Richard,  205,  402 

Wagner  v.  Jaureg,  324 

Wanderlust,  210 

Weakness,  381,  385 

Weber,  Parltes,  214 

Weeping   fits,  381 

Weininger,   105,  248 

Werles,  Gregor,  128 

Wernicke,  386 

Wild  duck,  128 

Wild  oats,  107 

Wildness,  281,  301 

Will    to    be    above,    Nietzsche, 

346 
Will  to  be  up,  Nietzsche,  337, 

339,  353 
Will  to  power,  Nietzsche,  24,  32, 

41,    71,    93,    129,    132,    231, 

348 
Will  to  seem,  30,  296 
Willfulness,   184 
Winking,  50 
Woman,  388,  408 

Yauregg,  Wagner  v.,  9    ' 
Younger  brother,  191 

Ziehen,  67 


THE    END 


